Ruins Raiders
by Relm Wanderer
Summary: Slayers/Relic Hunter fusion fic. Professor Lina Inverse, head history professor of North Rixx University is searching for a lost relic when everything goes to heck! Booby traps, espionage, puzzels, death threats... all in the a days work! COMPLETED!
1. Prologue

_Author's Notes: Minor changes. I had originally written Lina finding the second eye and in later parts I had accidently changed it to the third eye. Which actually was what I had intended, so she finds the third eye in this not the second. And if you haven't ever watched 'Relic Hunter' it's about Sydney Fox, a university professor that when she's not teaching searches for lost relics and artifacts for her school with her klutzy brainy assistant Nigel Bailey. Concept of this story is similar but doesn't follow any events of the 'Relic Hunter' tv show. So you don't need to watch Relic Hunter for this to make sense. It's its own thing. _

Ruins Raiders

Prologue

By Relm

"Ah-ha! Now I've got you my beauty!" A woman dressed in a dark tan and black outfit cried out in glee as she gingerly picked up the said item. It was something that she had been searching for, for many years. "I finally have it, the third eye of Trinibee!" It was a small oval gem that sparkled with three different shades of blue. The gem had a glowing design on the middle of it that resembled an eye.

"Professor Inverse where are you?" A loud voice boomed throughout the underground tomb.

"Shit!" The woman cursed as the room started to shake. 'Why can't that idiot be quiet?'

"Professor Inverse?" A tall blond man came up to master burial chamber room. He stood dumbfound squinting through his large glasses and his long hair tied back in ponytail.

"Damnit Gourry shut up! This place is going to collapse if you keep shouting." Lina grumbled tucking a few strains of her long wavy hair red hair behind her ear.

"Sorry Professor Inverse, but I got lost." Gourry apologized as he started to walk towards her.

"No you idiot, don't step on that!" Lina screamed.

But it was too late.

"Huh?" Gourry stepped on a faded purple circular panel on the ground that gave way under the pressure of his foot. The panel made a clicking sound right before the tomb started to rumble.

"You idiot now you've done it!" Lina screamed and bopped him on the head. She put her prize in her little shoulder bag.

"What's going on?" Gourry said as he rubbed the now sore spot on his head.

"The tomb is collapsing because of your stupidity. Come on let's go before we get killed." Lina grabbed him by his shirt and dragged him as she broke out into a mad dash.

Columns began crashing down and traps went off at every turn making it a very dangerous escape for Lina and Gourry. They ran all the way back through the tomb the way they came in but it ALREADY had collapsed.

"We can't get out! We're going to die!" Gourry screamed shrieking like a girl.

"Shut up! We'll find another way. Come on!" Lina dragged him again and they raced through the collapsing tomb.

They just barely made it out with their lives coughing on thick dust and sand.

"This is the last time I take you with me! From now on you're staying back at the school!" Lina screamed while punching the sand.

"I'm sorry Professor Inverse." Gourry lowered his head.

"For the last time, call me Lina not Professor Inverse!" Lina yelled at Gourry waving her hands in the air.

"I'm sorry."

"Stop apologizing you idiot!"

"I'm sorry."

"AHHHH!"

"Well at least you got what you were looking for right Prof Inverse?" Gourry said sheepishly while sweatdropping. "The school will be happy about that."

Lina grinned. "You're right! As long as I have the third eye of Trinibee no matter how bad this day is it will all be worth while." Lina went to get the gem out of her pack but found something else instead. The third eye of Trinibee was now reduced to a pile of crystallized dust. "What happened?" Lina was near to tears.

"You broke it on the way? I break lots of stuff." Gourry suggested.

Lina glared at him.

"Well there are three of them right? We could always go get one of the other two."

Lina narrowed her eyes further. "One of them is in the royal Sailune City museum. As for the other one no one knows of its location. This was the only one that we had any information on. It could take years to find the proper information that could lead to finding the last one." Lina's tone was a deadly one.

"I'm sorry?" Gourry squeaked an apology.

"You should be sorry you STUPID PEA BRAINED IDIOT!" Lina's voice echoed throughout the sand dunes of the desert.

The whole trip back to Dhawyn Lina was very quiet. She didn't say a word to Gourry unless it was necessary. And that was fine with Gourry. He knew once Lina was angry it was best not to talk to her. Or otherwise one might evoke Lina Inverse's wraith. A quiet brooding Lina is far less dangerous then a Lina seething with very vocal anger.

In a little over 12 hours they reached Yardly, a district which is located in mid eastern Dhawyn. From there they took a plane that flew them the rest of the way to Rixx City, the capital of Zarlia a northwestern district of Dhawyn.

During both plane rides Lina was quiet. She didn't say a word to Gourry at all. Not even when they took a taxi to North Rixx University. She was still silent.

North Rixx University was the school that both Lina and Gourry worked at. Lina was a highly regarded Professor that taught Ancient History and Gourry was appointed to be Lina's assistant much to her dismay. The only real reason why Gourry was supposed to assist Lina was because she was regularly required to go on expeditions that proved to be dangerous more often then naught. And Gourry's muscle and natural fighting ability came in handy in some situations. Though even then Lina would have preferred to not have him around. Of course another reason why Gourry might have been appointed as Lina's assistant might be the fact that his father was the head owner of the university.

"Hello Mister Gourry, Miss Lina, how did the trip go?" Sylphiel asked greeting Lina and Gourry as they came into the office. Sylphiel served as both a secretary and a teacher's assistant for Lina. She organized papers and answered phones as well as help Lina with her class. And whenever Lina was away Sylphiel would be the one teaching the class for Lina.

"No-t-t-t we-ll Miss Syl-ph-phiel." Gourry stuttered slightly. He always got all weak-kneed in front of Sylphiel. Gourry normally a very strong and brave man who can pull his own weight in a battle was turned into a stuttering klutzy mess whenever Sylphiel was around.

Sylphiel thought he was cute but she hadn't quite caught on yet. "What happened?"

"Because of that jellyfish brained idiot there we almost got killed and we lost the third eye of Trinibee." Lina finally spoke and her tone wasn't pleasant. Mainly because she had no idea what she was going to say the Headmaster Gaberieve.

"You lost it? And there isn't any way to get it back?"

"Well I didn't loose it, it's right here." Lina dumped the contents of her bad onto her desk for Sylphiel to see. Which ended up being dust in a pretty shade of blue.

"Oh my, so I guess this isn't the best time to read the morning paper…" Sylphiel mumbled under her breathe.

"What did you say?" Lina glared at Sylphiel.

"I said this isn't the best time to read the morning paper." Sylphiel said more clearly. She knew what was coming so she braced herself as she handed Lina the paper.

On the front cover was a picture of a man that Lina had grown to hate over the years holding a small oval gem with markings on the center of it that resembled an eye. The headline read, '_East Rixx University Professor Finds Second Eye of Trinibee_'. "I can't believe it, HE FOUND THE OTHER EYE?" Lina started screaming.

"Professor Inverse, Headmaster Gaberieve wishes to see you in his office." A messenger said knocking on the open door.

Lina facefaulted. "I'm dead, I'm so dead."

_Author's Notes: Again like Ghost Slayers, Gourry is crushing on Sylphiel. But in this case Nigel the character that Gourry is portraying in this fic crushed on Karen, Sydney's last teaching assistant/secretary in Relic Hunter. (Though I could have seen a Nigel/Claudia thing going on if they hadn't replaced her with Karen. I like Nigel/Claudia as much as Nigel/Karen) So in this fic since Sylphiel is Karen having Gourry crush on her just makes sense. Plus it feeds into my L/Z G/S addictions. ^_~_


	2. Chapter One

**Ruins Raiders**

Chapter One, All the King's Horses

By Relm

"I'm dead, I'm so dead. I'm deader then dead. What am I going to say? Headmaster Gaberieve is going to go nuts. I'm dead." Lina mumbled into the wood of Sylphiel's desk while Sylphiel vacuumed up the 'third eye of Trinibee' with a mini dust buster and put it into a zip lock bag.

"Just tell him the truth Miss Lina. I'm sure he'll understand." Sylphiel tried to calm Lina. But that wasn't going to happen any time soon.

"He wont. I can't, I just can't tell him."

"Well you certainly can't not show up Miss Lina. He'll get even madder."

Lina sighed heavily and got up from her chair. She held out her hand and took the bag with the eye in it. Her steps were blunt and heavy as she dragged herself out of her office and into the university halls. Lina had been so angry the whole trip back to the university that she hadn't realized just how drained and tired she was from the trip. She barely got any rest at all during the trip and as soon as she 'lost' the eye she and Gourry took the very first flight back home. She was still suffering from massive jet lag and even though it was in the middle of the afternoon her body and mind was reacting as if it was late at night.

Now that Lina's anger had subsided and her fear set in she felt so weary and just totally worn out. 'What am I going to say? He's going to kill me! The third eye is gone and that annoying bastard from East Rixx University found the second one.'

North Rixx and East Rixx University had been rivals ever since the two schools opened up the same day many years ago. One school had to have better education. One school had to have better sports teams. One school had to be better then the other. There was no compromise. The two schools wouldn't call it a tie, the rivalry continued in a vicious circle that never ends. And the two headmasters were the worst.

Lina hesitantly knocked on the headmaster's office door wincing.

"Come in Inverse." Headmaster Gaberieve's voice almost boomed down the halls.

Lina took a deep breath before opening the door and walking in.

"Ah Professor Inverse! So good that you're back. Sit sit." Headmaster Gaberieve motioned for her to sit in a chair facing his desk.

Lina was even more nervous. The fact that Headmaster Gaberieve was in a good mood despite the article in the paper was not a good thing.

"So how was your trip Inverse? Did you have fun?"

"Umm… well-"

"Of course you did! You wouldn't be back so soon if you hadn't found what you were looking for." Headmaster Gaberieve patted Lina on the back.

"Yeah there's something I need to tell-" Lina started saying.

"The paper! Yes I read the paper. I'm a little shocked that that East Rixx professor managed to find the second eye before you found the third but that doesn't matter. The third eye is the one that supposed to have the most power. And you know what that East Rixx idiot headmaster is boasting? He says that his boy is going to find the third eye before anyone else! Ha ha ha! They'll be burned up once they hear that we got it first!" Headmaster Gaberieve started roaring with laughter.

Lina cringed. This wasn't good, this wasn't good at all. "The third eye… it's…"

"Where is it? I'd love to gaze on our newest addition to the university museum. Do you have it with you Professor Inverse?"

Lina gave a hesitant nod.

"Well let me see it then! This is North Rixx University's time to shine! Ha ha ha ha!"

Lina deftly held up the zip lock bag for Headmaster Gaberieve to see.

"What is that? That looks like a bag of crystallized dust. Where's the eye?"

"That is the eye. Or what's left of it anyways." Lina's voice was very quiet. 'I'm going to loose my job. And no other school will hire me. I'm doomed.'

Headmaster Gaberieve was silent for a long time. You could see this pressure building within him that made him look like he was going to explode till… He started laughing. "HOHOHOHOHOHOHO! You almost had me! I almost believed that that pile of dust was the third eye of Trinibee! How absurd! Really Professor Inverse, where is the third eye?"

"You heard me, that is the third eye. It was destroyed because of your brainless son who couldn't see a trap if it bit him. We're lucky that the two of us are both alive." Lina huffed in mock anger. She was more afraid then anything.

Headmaster Gaberieve tried to search Lina's eyes with hopes that this was a joke but he couldn't, she was serious. "That pile of dust is the eye?"

"Unfortunately. And you have your son to blame."

That same pressure that once was building up started building up again. "This is my son's fault? He's the reason why the eye was destroyed?" Headmaster Gaberieve's voice was very calm which scared Lina.

"Yes."

"Well mistakes do happen. It can't be helped."

Lina blinked. 'What the…?' "You're not angry?"

"He's my son after all. I could never stay angry at him."

"And you're okay with East Rixx having the second eye and us having nothing?" Lina was very confused.

"Oh we don't have anything. Because you're going to find a way to fix that thing or so help me gods or you will never work anywhere ever again!" Headmaster Gaberieve screamed at Lina in such a sudden loud angry voice that took her by surprised.

"Fix it?"

"Oh yes, now get out of my office before I get really mad!" Headmaster Gaberieve screamed again pointing at his door.

Lina didn't wait to be ordered again she scampered out of that office as soon as she could. She walked with a lowered head back to her office. She didn't say a word to either Gourry or Sylphiel as she entered the room. Instead she just went straight for her desk and plopped herself down in her chair.

"Didn't go well did it Miss Lina?" Sylphiel asked softly with concern in her eyes.

Lina let out a heavy sigh and let her head hit the desk.

"I'm hungry, see you two later!" Gourry flashed a big grin at Sylphiel before leaving.

Lina glared at him on the way out. "Doesn't that idiot care about anything but his damn stomach?" Lina muttered after he had left.

"What happened? I could really hear Headmaster Gaberieve yelling." Sylphiel pulled her chair right next to Lina and sat down.

"Well it was okay at first because he was all smug because we have the third eye which is better then the second and it would really burn East Rixx that we got it before them. And then I told him what happened and he looked like he was going to explode only he didn't."

Sylphiel raised an eyebrow. "He didn't?"

"No. He would normally at stuff like this, but it's probably because it's Gourry's fault that he didn't." Lina rolled her eyes. Gourry was more trouble then he was worth.

"Really? Then how come I heard him yelling?"

"He started yelling afterwards. I'm supposed to find a way to fix the third eye or I'll never work ever again! How am I supposed to do fix that thing? It's not like I can super glue it back together!" Lina whined out letting her head hit her desk yet again.

"Perhaps there is a book or something that can help us." Sylphiel suggested.

"Sylphiel I've read every single book I can get my hands on about all three eyes of Trinibee. And none of them mention anything about fixing them when they have been shattered into a million pieces."

"You haven't read all of them." Sylphiel went and fished out a book she had in her desk. "We just acquired this book recently. And I've been hiding it till you got back. Headmaster Gaberieve was afraid that someone might steal it if it wasn't hidden." Sylphiel handed Lina the book.

It was an old rusted red colored book that had a thick dusty odor to it. Lina cautiously opened the book and began to read it.

Sylphiel left Lina to read the book while she finished marking tests from class just hours ago.

Almost an hour later Lina closed the book with a frown on her face.

"What is it Miss Lina?"

"Sylphiel where did you get this book?"

"I don't know where it came from, Headmaster Gaberieve didn't say. Why? Is it not helpful at all?"

"It's helpful I guess. From what it tells me there might be a lead to fixing the eye. Only…"

"Only what?"

"It has to do with the second eye of Trinibee. And unless there is more books like this I bet you anything that East Rixx University has just about every useful book on the second eye that there is." Lina sighed yet again.

"Oh my. Perhaps they would let you borrow some of their books?" Sylphiel suggest even though she knew very well the answer to that one.

"They'd never do that and you know it Sylphiel. Damnit if there was some way I could get access to their books I know I could find something to help me. But I can't brake into the university. If I do that again I'll be put in jail for sure. And they have records of everyone affiliated with North Rixx University so I can't have someone sneak into the campus." Lina chewed on her bottom lip. "There's no way I'm going to be able to get in there." Lina let her head fall on her desk again.

"How about this?" Sylphiel placed a flyer on Lina's desk for her to see.

Lina frowned and picked up the flyer. "A charity party at East Rixx University? That would be great way to sneak in but it says it's by invitation only."

Sylphiel grinned and flashed an envelope with Lina's name on it. "And guess who has an invitation?" Sylphiel sang out.

"How?" Lina grabbed the invitation from Sylphiel's hands.

"All well renowned educators in the area are invited Miss Lina. And I'm pretty sure this is East Rixx's way of boasting about their school in a showing fashion. Headmaster Gaberieve has these parties too."

Lina grinned. "Well then this is going to be fun."


	3. Chapter Two

**Ruins Raiders**

Chapter Two, Let's Go Shopping!

By Relm

Lina evilly chuckled as she mentally plotted plans.

"Miss Lina what are you going to wear?" Sylphiel asked breaking Lina from her thoughts.

"Wear? Why does it matter what I wear?"

"It's a formal party Miss Lina. You can't just waltz in there wearing jeans and a t-shirt."

Lina frowned. "What should I wear?"

"Well if you want it to look convincing that you're there to attend the party and not to raid their library you should dress up."

"Dress up? As in a dress?"

"Yes, a nice elegant dress. And your hair should be done up nicely and you should wear jewellery and make up."

Lina paled. This was starting to sound worse and worse. "What if I don't have any of that stuff?"

"Then we go shopping!" Sylphiel cheered gleefully. If there was something she loved more than anything, it was shopping. Even if she wasn't shopping for her.

Lina groaned. She loathed shopping. "Do we have too?" She whined in discontent.

"We'll have to check what you have first and then we'll see. We'll leave for your place right after school hours."

"Today? I just got back from my trip! I'm tired and I wanted to sleep! Can't we do it tomorrow?"

"The sooner we get it done the better. And how come you didn't just sleep on the plane? It was a long flight wasn't it?"

"Too long. And how could I sleep? I was too mad to relax. Besides I was right next to that idiot Gourry who was snoring loud enough to keep the whole plane up." Lina huffed.

"Well if we get it done today then you won't have to worry about it later. The party is a little over a week away and there's no telling what dresses are left to buy. I've heard from my friend at Suzy's Boutique that it's been just a madhouse in all the clothing stores. The party at East Rixx is supposed to be very big and everyone invited is scrambling for something to wear. If we wait till it's too late there might not be anything good to wear. And seeing how picky you can be Miss Lina you probably won't like any of the choices. It's just one day Miss Lina. Why don't you take a nap right now? Then you'll be rested before we shop." Sylphiel suggested.

Lina sighed. "Sounds nice but I while I'm here I have to teach."

"Don't forget Miss Lina, you're back two days early. And you weren't supposed to come straight to school after getting off the plane. I don't think they'll care given the situation Miss Lina. Besides it's just more tests and I'm pretty sure I can handle that easily enough."

"But-"

"No buts, get some rest, I'll wake you up later." Sylphiel insisted getting her stuff ready for class.

Lina admitted defeat and went to get into a restful position in her reclining chair.

...

"Miss Lina?" Sylphiel gave Lina a gentle nudge.

Lina groaned as she attempted to open her weighted down eyelids. But gravity wasn't kind and her energy was low so opening her eyes was a chore. "Don't want to get up too sleepy…" Lina grumbled.

"C'mon Miss Lina. You and I have to go shopping now."

Lina opened one eye to glare at Sylphiel. "What do you mean now? School can't be over with already! It's only been like ten minutes." Lina closed her eye again and attempted to go back to sleep.

"Miss Lina it's been two hours. We need to get shopping now if we want to find something before all the stores close. And don't forget we still have to go to your place first to see what you have. We really need to leave now." Sylphiel picked up Lina's stuff.

Lina groaned. "Fine." Lina managed with great effort to get herself up and open her eyes. But she wasn't standing still. Her body teetered a bit.

"Okay Miss Lina let's go." Sylphiel pushed Lina forward.

Lina groaned yet again.

...

With Lina's directions Sylphiel drove Lina home in her car. It's a good thing Sylphiel is very good at following directions or otherwise she would have gotten lost; Lina fell asleep during the car ride.

"Wake up Miss Lina, we're at your place."

Lina opened her sleepy eyes. And sure enough her apartment was before her in all its yellow peeling paint glory.

It was an ugly building. It hadn't been repainted in years and it was very weather beaten from the seasons. The only spots that had fresh paint on it were to cover up the graffiti that had been on the sides of the building. It was a three-floor apartment but only had four suites on each floor. Lina's was on the first floor.

Though the apartment was a real sad sight Lina didn't care. After going through the hell trip that she had that old shabby apartment looked like paradise. A paradise with a nice wonderfully comfy bed. "Home…" Lina's voice was far off.

"Miss Lina stay focused." Sylphiel helped Lina out of the car. She nearly had to drag Lina to her door.

Sylphiel fiddled with the keys and opened the door to reveal the worst mess that she had ever seen. "Miss Lina I know you aren't the neatest person but isn't this a bit much?" Sylphiel laughed with a sweatdrop.

"What the hell happened here?" Lina yelled with sudden rejuvenated energy. Anger will do that to you.

"You mean it's not normally like this?"

Lina glared at Sylphiel. "No! Someone has ransacked the place!"

"Do you suppose they were looking for something?"

"Probably trying to find something on the eye. I bet it's those bastards from East Rixx!"

"I doubt it Miss Lina, this doesn't look like something they would do."

Lina frowned. "Yeah you're probably right. But this still makes me really mad!"

"Well we don't have time to clean it up now. Let's go check your room out for something you could wear to the party." Sylphiel commanded.

Lina shook her head at the mess but lead Sylphiel to her room. Unfortunately it wasn't much better than her living room. All the drawers had been pulled out and the contents dumped on her floor and her bed frame. The bed mattress was flipped over on its side and her desk and filing cabinet had been cleared out.

Lina picked up the contents of jewellery box that was spread out on the floor.

The jewellery box now was pieces of broken wood. "Well these weren't common thieves. Otherwise they would have taken this stuff. This jewellery is worth a fortune." Lina showed Sylphiel her collection of jewellery.

"Oooooh!" Sylphiel admired the pretty chains and jewels. "Well you certainly don't need any jewellery then. What about makeup?"

Lina pulled out a tube a lipstick out of her bag.

"Well makeup I have. Now about a dress and shoes?"

Lina frowned and pulled her mattress back properly on its frame, moving all the junk around it. She went to her closet and started throwing stuff on the bed. Most of the closing she threw over to Sylphiel was wrinkled from when the room was trashed.

Sylphiel crinkled her nose. Most of the dress weren't dressy enough or they looked like they would be way too small for Lina. Not to mention they were pretty outdated too. And the shoes weren't much better.

"Miss Lina when was the last time you had to dress up?"

Lina frowned in thought and was very silent for a long time.

"Never mind, forget I asked." Sylphiel shook her head.

"So you're telling there's nothing good here?"

Sylphiel shook her head.

"Nothing at all?"

"Nothing."

Lina let out a heavy sigh.

"Let's go shopping!" Sylphiel cheered.

Lina groaned.

...

Sylphiel wasn't joking; the clothing stores were all mad houses. There wasn't a single store that wasn't busy.

'This must be some party they're throwing…' Lina thought overwhelmed by just how crowded it was in Suzy's Boutique.

Alaya, Sylphiel's friend worked at Suzy's Boutique and had insisted that they come to her store first. Sylphiel had called Alaya in-between classes at school.

"Sylphy, Miss Lina! Over here!" Alaya called to the two motioning for them to come over to the changing rooms.

"Hi Ali, how are things?" Sylphiel asked her friend.

"It's been crazy here. It's a good thing you called first or otherwise I wouldn't have anything left in Miss Lina's size. Miss Lina go into the fourth changing room I've got it all set up for you." Alaya started pushing Lina towards the said fitting room.

"Huh? What do you mean you have everything ready for me?" Lina asked firmly planting her feet down.

"Sylphy told me your size and I grabbed everything we have. It's all in there for you to try on. Sorry I don't have more. I could only find like twelve dresses."

Lina's eyes went wide. "Only twelve?" 'What does a normal woman take in? A hundred?'

"Again I'm sorry. I did my best. Now hurry up before my manager finds out I hid stuff from the other customers." Alaya shoved Lina into the fitting room.

Lina stared at the dresses laid out before her. She didn't try clothing on much but these dresses sure didn't appeal to her at all. 'God these things look ugly!'

"Miss Lina make sure you show me all the stuff you try on!" Sylphiel called out from outside.

Lina groaned. 'I hate shopping.'


	4. Chapter Three

**Ruins Raiders**

Chapter Three, Shopping, Police and Pizza

By Relm

Lina grimaced as she put on the first dress. It was too loose on the top and the bottom wasn't much better either. If it was a tighter fit it might have worked only the dark shade of orange clashed with her hair and blended too much with her skin. It looked hideous.

"Miss Lina how are you doing? Have you got one on?" Sylphiel asked from the other side of the changing room.

"Fine. I have one of them on." Lina's voice wasn't too enthusiastic.

"Show me."

Lina let out a sigh. "Alright." Lina inched herself out of the fitting room.

Waiting customers snickered as Lina got out. Lina glared at them.

Sylphiel frowned. "The only thing good about it is the length. Maybe you should go for a different size?" Sylphiel asked more talking to herself then Lina. "Well we'll see how the other ones are first. Different brands fit differently."

Lina groaned and went back to the sanctuary of the fitting room. 'If I'm going to have people laughing at me with every dress I try on then somebody is going to lose some teeth.' Lina thought grimly. This was one of the reasons why she hated shopping.

The next dress wasn't much better. It fit a little better but the color still wasn't right.

"Alright let me see what else Alaya picked out for you." Sylphiel requested holding her hand out.

Lina handed her a large clump of clothing.

Sylphiel held each dress one by one against Lina's skin and her hair. Most of them either clashed or wouldn't suit Lina.

By the end of it Sylphiel picked four of the remaining ten dresses. The rest she handed back to Alaya. "Here Miss Lina, just try those four on."

Lina sighed again and went back to the fitting room.

The first one was definitely a good color choice. It was an emerald green that made her eyes sparkle. But it also made her look like a flat board. A sheet would have been more form fitting.

The second dress was an icy blue. It was nice was it was far too short for Lina's height.

The third was black and it bunched too much round the stomach. It was just the type of fabric it was, it wouldn't stay the way you want it to no matter how much fussing with it. So it was obviously out.

Lina walked out wearing the last one. Even she had to admit, this one was very nice.

"It's perfect!" Sylphiel exclaimed. "Turn around."

Lina did as she was told.

Sylphiel's smile broadened. "This is the one."

The other customers who had been snickering at Lina before were now grumbling. They were obviously jealous.

"So that's it then? No more shopping?" Lina's smile was a hopeful one.

"Oh no, we still have to do some shoe shopping. Hurry up and get dressed so we can get the dress." Sylphiel ordered already walking towards the register.

Lina groaned. "Can't I just wear a pair of running shoes? The dress is long enough, no one will notice." Lina yelled while getting changed in record time.

"You can't be serious Miss Lina! Your shoes have to match your dress! What if you dance? They see your shoes."

"Dance? Sylphiel I'm there to raid their library, not socialize!" Lina said dryly handing the dress for Alaya to ring up.

"You have to socialize a little. Don't forget they might have invited you but that doesn't mean they will be expecting you to show up. They're going to watch you like a hawk. So you're going to have to pretend like you are there for the party."

"But do I have to dance?" Lina whined. She hated dancing. The only guys who ever asked her to dance were always stupid and stepped on her feet.

"Probably. You don't need to ask anyone to dance, but if you're asked by someone you should at least dance a few times. Besides maybe we can find a pair of shoes that will make you appear taller."

"Taller? Are you calling me short?" Lina glared at Sylphiel while handing Alaya the money. Nice dresses were never cheap.

"Heavens no. But high heels would make you look like your legs were longer. Plus it shows that you're really trying to dress up for this party." Sylphiel expertly dodged the question.

"High heels? How the heck am I supposed to sneak into their library with high heels?" Lina grabbed the bag from Alaya containing the dress.

"Thank you and have a nice day!" Alaya was way too cheery.

"I don't know Miss Lina. You're creative I'm sure you'll find a way. Now we've got a job ahead of us. It's going to be hard to find a shoe that matches that dress so we're going to have to hit all the shoe shops in the area and maybe some over town. What size shoe are you?" Sylphiel asked in a cheerful voice as they left Suzy's Boutique.

Lina groaned.

...

Several hours later Lina dragged herself back her apartment. Sylphiel had dropped her off only minutes ago and had left to go home.

Lina was exhausted. She was still tried from the jet lag but the shopping wore her out completely. 'How does Sylphiel get the energy for all that?' Lina sighed walking into her apartment.

Lina had always thought that shopping for the dress rather than the shoes was the harder of the two. But it proved to be the other way around. Lina was lucky that she found the dress at the first store she went to but she wasn't so lucky with the shoes. They tried store after store after store looking for shoes. They had found a few places with shoes that matched the dress color but they didn't have Lina's size. The shoe stores seemed to have been hit harder than the dress shops for the party.

It had been such a crazy ordeal looking for the shoes that they didn't end up finding the shoes they wanted until they hit the shops over town. And they ended up being more expensive then the dress!

'This day can't get any worse.' Lina thought yawning. But then she looked around her apartment again. She had forgotten that it had been ransacked. Lina groaned picking up the phone. She dialled the number for the police.

"_Hello Greater Rixx Police Station how may I help you?" _

"Hi I'd like to report a break in. My place was ransacked and I don't know who did it."

"_Was there anything stolen?" _

"Not that I know of. I haven't really checked the place thoroughly yet."

"_Did you check to see if you're missing any valuables like jewellery?" _

"I checked my jewellery box, or what's left of it. It's all there and it's pretty expensive too."

"_How long ago was it that you found your place like this?" _

"A couple of hours ago."

"_A couple of hours ago? And you're just reporting it now?" _

"I had to go shopping for a stupid dress so I didn't have a chance. For all I know they could have been done days ago."

"_Days?" _

"Yeah I've been out of town for the past week and a half."

_(silence) _

"Hello are you still there?"

"_Yes I am. Tell me, what's your address?" _

"#3-227 Greyson Avenue."

The lady on the phone sighed. _"You're Lina Inverse aren't you?" _

"Yes I am."

"_Miss Inverse this is the fourth break in you've reported this month!" _

"So? Are you going to send someone over here or not? Otherwise I'm going to bed."

"_A police officer will be there shortly." _

"Thank you." Lina hung up the phone. 'What the hell am I going to do now?' Lina thought looking around her apartment. She wanted to sleep but she needed to stay up till the officer got to her home. 'I should have reported this tomorrow.'

Lina walked over to her kitchen in the hopes that there was still food she could eat. But her intruders had cleaned out the refrigerator as well. Everything that been in the refrigerator were now spilled all over the floor, and the refrigerator door had been left open. 'Great this is going to be a nice addition to my electrical bill for the month.' Lina crinkled her nose. The smell wasn't too pleasant.

The cupboards were much in the same condition as her refrigerator. Everything was all over the place. "What the hell could they have been looking for that could have been with my food? I mean come on! And they ruined so much stuff. If they come back tonight I'm really going to beat the crap out of them!" Lina screamed out for no apparent reason. But she got no answer, not that she was expecting one.

Back to the phone Lina went to do what she normally did in a situation like this, order pizza. Thirty of them to be exact. And each one was different. Given the volume she couldn't just get all of them at one place either. So Lina had to order them from six different places.

'Now let's see which one gets here first.' Lina grinned and then shook her head. 'This is what I do at home for fun… I'm pathetic.' But she didn't linger on that thought for long, she picked up an unopened bag of chips and sat herself down on her couch to watch TV till either the police man or the food came.


	5. Chapter Four

**Ruins Raiders**

Chapter Four, Working Late

By Relm

After the police checked out her apartment fully they left, leaving Lina alone.

Lina knew she should probably make an attempt to clean up her home somewhat but she was just too damn tired. Sleep threatened to take her over at any moment so she decided to go straight to bed. And being as tired as she was she didn't even bother to change.

Her room was a mess of stuff, most of it being on the floor. Of course there was a great deal of junk scattered on her bed.

'I'll deal with this in the morning.' Lina thought frowning while she shoved everything off her sheets and onto the floor. Sleep took her over the moment she hit the pillows.

...

_Lina walked along a sandy beach on a windy autumn day. The beach was deserted with only Lina and the seagulls being the only souls in miles. The wave crashed loudly and the seagulls cried out as they took off to the sky._

_A small chill ran down Lina's back from the icy breeze and she pulled her coat more tightly around her. A small sigh escaped her lips as she watched the waves._

"_I haven't seen you in a while." A voice said from behind._

"_I've been away." Lina coldly replied not looking back, she just continued to stare out to the waves._

"_But you have a problem don't you?" The voice asked nearing closer to her. It was a man's voice._

"_What do you care?" Lina spat out. She knew this man quite well. And she didn't like that tone he was using. It sounded too cocky for her liking._

"_You need help don't you?"_

_Lina didn't answer._

"_You need my help."_

"_I don't need your help." Lina shook her head._

"_You will." He grabbed her arm._

_Lina angrily pulled her arm away from his grasp and turned to stare him down. But she didn't. Around his neck hung the second eye of Trinibee. The eye glowed absorbing all of Lina's attention causing her to stare blankly. Suddenly Lina felt a faint tug at her own neck. She looked down and saw the third eye intact and hanging from her neck. It glowed in resonance with the second eye._

_Before Lina could say anything she felt herself being pulled downwards. The sand that had been beneath her was now replaced by immense darkness. She was pulled till the darkness swallowed her whole. _

...

Lina woke with a thud on her floor. 'Damnit! Rolled off the bed again.' Lina mentally cursed as she sat up. Sharp pains on her side greeted her as she sat up. She had fallen onto some of the stuff that littered her floor. 'Ouch…'

The numbers 6:42 flashed rapidly from Lina's alarm clock. The power had been cut to the clock a while back and then restored and now bared an incorrect time.

"Shit! Why didn't I check this before I went to sleep?" Lina frantically searched for her watch. But she had carelessly tossed the watch the previous night and was now camouflaged among the junk on Lina's floor.

"Where is it?" Lina picked up things throwing them around till she finally found the watch. It read 3:23. 'Night or day?' Lina opened her curtains to reveal a bright sunny afternoon before her. "Stupid thieves! They could have left the stupid clock alone but no they had to cut the power!" Lina screamed. "Headmaster Gaberieve is going to kill me!" Lina grabbed her phone and grimly dialled the number for the school.

"_North Rixx University, how may I help you?"_ A female voice answered the phone.

"Hi Milly, this is Lina. Could you please put me through to Headmaster Gaberieve?"

"_Oh my Miss Lina! Good to have you back! When you get in?" _

"Yesterday."

"_Did you have fun on your trip? Did you find the eye?" _Milly asked eagerly.

"Yes um Milly can I speak with the Headmaster?" Lina asked while sweatdropping. Once you got Milly talking it was very hard to get her to stop.

"_Well Miss Lina I don't think you'd want to talk to him right now. He doesn't seem to be in a very good mood today. I don't have any idea why either. Of course it could be because of that awful newspaper article from yesterday. Did you get a chance to read it? I can't believe that they boasted that they would find the last eye like that! But of course they don't know how you and Mister Gourry are-" _

"Milly please, can I speak with Headmaster Gaberieve? It's very important." Lina cut Milly off.

"_Alright one moment please." _

There was a click and a short silence and Headmaster Gaberieve came on the line. _"Hello?" _

"Headmaster Gaberieve I'm sorry that I didn't make it to school but-"

"_I know, your place was ransacked again. Sylphiel told me. And you're jetlagged from your trip. That doesn't matter. You've been suspended from your teaching duties until you find out how to fix the eye." _

"But what if I can't find out how to fix the eye? What if it's impossible?"

"_Then Sylphiel will be my new head Ancient History teacher. Do you understand that?" _Headmaster Gaberieve's voice was very stern and threatening.

"Yes Headmaster."

"_So get to work. I don't want you wasting any more time." _The phone clicked as Headmaster Gaberieve hung up the phone.

Lina let out a heavy sigh. 'He doesn't want me wasting any time? It's a good thing he doesn't know that I'm going to that party at East Rixx University. He'd go nuts.' Lina looked around her room pondering. 'I have two things I can do today, clean up my home or search up more leads for the second and third eye. And seeing how most libraries are in the area are going to be closing in a couple hours that doesn't leave with much time to investigate.' Lina sighed again. 'Cleaning it is then.'

...

In between cleaning breaks Lina search up information over the internet concerning any of the eyes of Trinibee. Most of the sites that she found were information on the first eye, because naturally that was the eye that was most documented. Sometimes searching for information over the net was like searching for a needle in a haystack. Sure she could find many search results for the second and third eyes of Trinibee but it was always the same information. How they weren't yet found (these websites hadn't been updated since the unveiling of the second eye) and possible locations of where people speculate they could be. Nothing more. No information on what the eyes do, and more specifically no information on how to fix a broken eye.

'I'll just have to search through the school library; this is getting me nowhere. Maybe Headmaster Gaberieve acquired some more books while I was gone.' Lina thought hopefully taking off her glasses and rubbing her eyes. Staring at a computer screen for too long always overstrained her eyes.

...

It was well after 8 pm when Lina went into the university. Most of the students had vacated the building as well as most of the teachers. Though there were always those night owls that lurked the university halls till well after dark.

Her boots made loud thud noises as she walked in a hurried pace towards her office. The noise echoed down the halls making it sound like there was more than one person in the hall besides Lina. But of course Lina wasn't going to get spooked even after having her place broken into. So she just calmly continued on till she reached her office.

In her office Lina found Sylphiel whom had fallen asleep marking papers at her desk.

"Sylphiel?" Lina nudged the sleeping woman.

Sylphiel murmured as she woke. "Huh? What's going on?"

"You fell asleep. Been working hard?"

"Oh hello Miss Lina. What time is it?"

"It's a little after eight. You should go home."

Sylphiel shook her head. "No I still have more work to do."

"You can take the work home with you. At least if you fall asleep you'll be at home rather than on a hard desk." Lina insisted scooping up all of Sylphiel's papers.

"What are you going to do?"

"I figured I'd go rummage through the library a bit to see if I can find any information I may have missed before. Headmaster Gaberieve didn't get any other books to do with the eyes, did he?" Lina asked hopefully.

Sylphiel shook her head. "Besides the new one you already read I don't think he managed to get any more."

Lina frowned. "Oh well I'll still look around. I need to waste some time that still could be passed off as work. How many more days until that stupid party?"

"It's going to be a week from tomorrow."

Lina sighed. "I'd better find something at the party because Headmaster Gaberieve's patients will be wearing thin by then."

"I suppose I'll see you tomorrow then." Sylphiel said while getting her stuff ready.

"Sure. I'll stop by tomorrow."

"Are you going to be okay researching alone?"

Lina shrugged. "Yeah sure I'll be fine. It's not like I haven't done this before."

"Goodnight Miss Lina."

"Goodnight Sylphiel."

...

Lina rubbed her eyes under her glasses as she flipped through another book. It was well after 12 am and Lina was still at the university library reading. She wasn't really getting anywhere. Even though when she first looked up information on the eyes it was for possible locations she wasn't finding anything else that she wouldn't have seen the first time around. So that left Lina looking through lots of books and going through lots of coffee.

Given how often students and people like Lina spent so much time researching and studying in the university library a coffee machine had been put in the large room much to the library workers dismay. But contrary to popular beliefs no coffee stains had ended up on any books yet. Which was odd because the coffee machine was almost always in use. Of course it could be that whole rule the library workers held over the library goers heads: one stain and bye bye coffee machine. So perhaps everyone was just extra careful.

It was very late at night and by this Lina should really be the only person in the university besides security. Or so Lina thought.


	6. Chapter Five

**Ruins Raiders**

Chapter Five, Intruders

By Relm

The book that Lina had in front of her was a mythology book that contained a few legends of the eyes but nothing that Lina hadn't read before. She had hoped that in her last round of researching that she missed a couple books or missed a couple passages on the eyes. Like any information pertaining to the second eye. But with each book re-read she just kept coming to the same conclusions. That she had been very throughout and hadn't missed a thing. Which was very frustrating. Lina sighed again while stretching back in her chair. She was sleepy and her muscles were starting to ache from sitting in the same position for too long. 'Maybe I should just call it a night and go home.' Lina thought as she got up to stand. But then she looked over to the pile of books that she hadn't gone over for the second time. And it was like they were calling her, because Lina felt compelled to stay and read. 'Damn, well just a few more books and I'm done!' Lina declared mentally as went to resume her reading from her chair. She went to grab her coffee mug among the pile of already read books. Her mug was still steaming from her last bit of coffee but barely any of the dark brown liquid remained. 'Better go refill first.'

With mug in tow Lina went over to the coffee machine once more to refill her mug with the caffeine brew. Taking a long sip from her mug she looked around the lonely library. It was quite large and filled to the brim with books, most of which Lina had read before. It was pretty dark in the large room. Most of the lights were off expect for the few lamps that Lina had turned on at the table she was working at and at the coffee machine. The light from the moon outside the window and the light from the lamps casted a vast array of shadows around the room. Lina frowned. 'I shouldn't be reading with such little light. I'm bound to ruin my eyes even more.' Lina thought this but made no effort to illuminate the room further. She just stood there leaning against the ledge of the coffee machine, sipping her coffee and staring at the room before her.

A light footstep alerted Lina's senses. She knew that many students liked to stay on campus after hours but they would usually make their presence known if they were going to use the library. They wouldn't sneak around trying to be as quiet as they could.

Of course Lina could have imagined the sound due to her tiredness she could have been hearing things. But Lina didn't think that she was just hearing things. 'Who is that?' Lina scanned her surroundings very carefully. She looked for any movement, but whoever was in the room was alerted that she was aware of their presence and wasn't moving.

Lina quietly and as calmly as she could went back to her table to go and pretend to work. But in reality she was making it look like she didn't notice the noise so that she could encourage the intruder to move.

The intruder must have been reading Lina's mind because he/she still didn't move.

Lina pretended to read but kept very aware of her surroundings.

After what seemed like an hour went by (which was actually a minute) Lina still hadn't heard or seen anything.

'Maybe I'm more tired than I thought. I guess I was just hearing things.' Lina shook her head while starting reading the book that she had decided was going to be the last one for the night.

Another soft footstep stopped Lina mid page. It came from in front of her just out of the reach of her table lamp. She heard someone take a sharp intake of air.

In her head Lina counted down before leaping out of her chair, over the table and going in a mad dash after the intruder.

Perhaps the intruder knew of Lina's reputation or maybe he/she was just nervous but as soon as Lina leaped out of her chair he/she bolted running.

Lina madly chased the intruder. From the body Lina pegged the intruder to be male. He was dressed completely in black, complete with black gloves and a black ski mask. He had in his hands one of the school library's books.

'Damn! He's got one of our books! He's got to be from East Rixx!' Lina thought as she chased him down the science wing halls. Lina had a very good idea who the thief was.

The book thief obviously panicking at this point was trying anything he could think of to lose Lina who was hot on his tail. But Lina had the advantage; she knew the school campus down to every inch. So even if he ran faster she always knew where he was going and what his options were going to be in the next room.

Lina grinned; he was heading straight into one of the art studios. And this one in particular only had one door that led out, the very same door he was going into to get into the room. 'He's trapped now.'

The intruder mentally cursed. 'She's got in a dead end!' He realized as he went into the room.

So he did the only thing he could really do, run around the room throwing stuff in his wake hoping to trip Lina.

But Lina wasn't running behind him at this point. She bolted to the side and cut him off as he did a circle. He had been too preoccupied with trying to escape that he didn't realize what she was doing till it was too late. She grabbed him and they both fell to the floor in a crash.

The intruder was quicker to react and got his feet, running as fast as he could out of the room and away from Lina.

Lina didn't get up quite so fast. She had smashed right into a cabinet and her head was dizzy from the impact. Once she had regained her composure it was too late, he was long gone.

"Damnit!" Lina cursed out loud while gingerly feeling the wound on her forehead. It was cut and bleeding slightly, but not that serious. She still felt a little dizzy so that made it hard to make sense of her dark surroundings. A sudden flash of light blinded Lina as the campus security guard turned on the light switch and rushed to her aid.

"Professor Inverse, are you alright?" The guard asked in concern as he helped her get up.

"I think I'll be fine. I'm a little tired from the running though." Lina said still breathing deeply.

"What in the world happened?"

"Intruder, he tried to steal a book from the library."

"Did he manage to get it?"

Lina frowned and looked to where she and the book thief had crashed to the floor. There among scattered art projects that had been knocked to the ground laid the book half open. "Doesn't look like it." Lina mused as she picked up the book.

...

The very next morning Lina parked her car in the East Rixx University parking lot and marched towards the campus. She in hand the book that was almost stolen from North Rixx University library the previous night.

Many school workers tried to stop Lina but she just pushed past them all as if they were nothing. She had a mission in mind and nothing was going to stop her till she got to her destination. And that destination was East Rixx Headmasters office.

Lina stormed into the office interrupting a meeting and slammed the book in her hand on Headmaster Sailune's desk. "Wanna explain this?" Lina yelled out loud.

Headmaster Philonel Sailune just gave her a weird look. "Well Professor Inverse it looks like a book. Why is it on my desk?"

"Because last night one your employees after midnight tried to steal this very book from North Rixx University library." Lina angrily glared at the headmaster.

Headmaster Sailune just laughed. "North Rixx sure has colourful teachers! But I assure you Professor Inverse that none of my employees would stoop so low to steal a book from your library. What's so special about that book that we would be interested in it?"

Lina smirked. "Well it's a book about the third eye of Trinibee. Though in terms of information it's almost completely useless. But I figured since you guys went to so much trouble to try and get the book that I signed it out under my name for you to borrow. It's due back two weeks from now. But next time ask if you want to borrow a book, it's a lot easier." Lina waltzed out of the office leaving the book on the desk behind her.

No one in the room said anything. They were all quiet and staring at the book.

"Did either of you break into North Rixx University?" Headmaster Sailune asked his head history teacher and assistant.

"Headmaster Sailune they have all the useful books on the third eye. And it's not like as if she hasn't tried stealing from us before." The assistant commented with a grin.

"So you went and tried to steal? That's a shame to our school name!" Headmaster Sailune shook his head.

"He didn't. I did," the head history professor admitted, "I wasn't intending to steal anything. I just want to have a look through some of the books that North Rixx had. But she caught me while I had one of the books in my hand. I wasn't expecting her to be there that late at night. I'm sorry." The head history professor said with a sigh. His side still hurt from where he hit the ground. Though he was somewhat satisfied to see that she didn't come out of the incident unscathed. He had noted the bandages on her forehead when she entered the room.

"Well I guess it's in the past and I don't think Professor Inverse is going to press charges from the way she acted. I doubt she'd leave the book behind." Headmaster Sailune mused.

"She probably has no proof that it was us. As for the book, it's probably as useless as she says so she's rubbing it in our faces." The assistant rationalized.

"I doubt that." The head history teacher disagreed picking up the book. "If this is the same book that I was reading last night then it details specific resources that would pin point the location of the third eye. So why is she giving away valuable information like that?" He frowned. 'It doesn't make sense.'

"Maybe she's over confident. It's stuff that's she's already read so maybe she's so sure that she'll get the eye first that she would let us have some of her information." The assistant suggested.

The Head History Teacher frowned. 'No that's still not right… What is that woman up to?'

...

Lina smirked as she went to her car. She was very satisfied with herself. 'Of course if Headmaster Gaberieve finds out I'll be in a lot of trouble. I'll just have to make sure that he doesn't.'


	7. Chapter Six

_(Sorry for the weird formatting. Since I lost everything I had to find some of my fics in odd places. This part of mine I snaged from one of my fanfiction mailing lists. Thus the email look to this. Looked fine in doc format on my computer but it turned out weird here. Oh well.)_

**Ruins Raiders**  
Chapter Six, Restless Night  
By Relm

The rest of the week went by pretty uneventfully. Lina tried her best to  
search up more information about the second eye, but it had been futile. No  
matter how many late nights she spent in libraries she couldn't find  
anything that she didn't already know. And since the whole incident in the  
school library night security had been increased so there hadn't been any  
more break ins.

Lina had actually hoped that there would be another incident, and was  
disappointed there wasn't. Not that she was bored researching or anything;  
Lina just got frustrated doing the same thing over and over again with no  
new result. Another break in would have been a welcomed distraction. But  
nothing happened.

After a while Lina gave up trying to find new information and then focused  
her efforts on which of East Rixx's books she needed to read. Of course  
their library had a public database that anyone could read to look up any  
book they currently had, but Lina knew that it wouldn't list all of East  
Rixx's books. Especially not the more recent additions concerning the second  
Eye of Trinibee. So how did Lina manage to get a list of the books in their  
inventory not listed on their public database? Why hacking of course.

While many teachers from North Rixx lived somewhat mundane lives outside  
their classes, Lina wasn't one of those teachers. She wasn't averse to  
engaging in somewhat illegal activities to get what she needed. Though  
usually nothing too serious.

Lina of course didn't do her hacking on the school grounds, nor did she do it at home. Instead she was at one of those internet cafes where if you buy coffee you can surf the internet as long as you wanted. And this particular  
internet café had really lax rules concerning what was allowed to do on the  
computers and also didn't take measures to prevent customers from doing  
illegal activities. Because when it came down to it, the owner didn't really  
care. As long as the customers were paying he didn't mind.

With a long list of books on handy Lina had then did back checks on each  
book. Some were very common books and she had already read at other  
libraries, others were rarer. Most of them dealt with information  
concerning the whereabouts of the second eye. But that wasn't what Lina was looking for. And even though it was very hard to pick out which ones on the list would actually be helpful it certainly narrowed down the list to just a  
few books.

...

Lina stared at her alarm clock as she lay awake in bed. It was around 4 am  
and she couldn't sleep. She had spent the better part of two hours lying on  
her bed staring at her ceiling. The East Rixx party was tomorrow (or later  
that day seeing how it was after midnight) and as much as she hated parties  
and dances, Lina was nervous. She wasn't nervous about sneaking in the  
library during the party, that she had experience in. What she was nervous  
about was of course the party itself. Lina always avoided parties like the  
plague. She hated getting dressed up and she hated dancing. And the fact  
that she was going to a rival school in a dress and heels didn't help her  
stomach at all.

'What am I going to say when Headmaster Gaberieve finds out that I went to this party? He'll be so mad and outraged.' Lina frowned.

Luckily she had been able to keep her lending a book on the third eye of  
Trinibee to East Rixx a secret from Headmaster Gaberieve so far but Lina  
wouldn't be able to hide her going to the East Rixx party. He was going to  
find out about that. She could always tell him that it was to sneak into  
their library (which it was) but he would still be madder then heck. North  
Rixx never attended East Rixx parties and vice versa. That's how it's always  
been. And Lina was about to break that little rule.

'Well at least I'll be the first one to break the trend. Worst-case  
scenario, I get fired. I wonder if East Rixx is looking for any more history  
teachers.' Lina thought smiling. That was always the backup plan. And she  
was pretty sure that Headmaster Sailune would more than happy to grab her  
for his teaching staff. Of course that meant she would lose the seniority  
she had at North Rixx.

Lina looked at her clock again. It was now 4:05 am. This was driving her  
nuts. 'I'm not going to be able to fall asleep looking at the clock every  
five seconds.' Lina thought grumbling. So she did the thing she always did  
when she couldn't sleep, she moved the alarm clock so that it wasn't facing  
her. Now she had no idea what the time was. Lina sighed and closed her eyes.

About an hour later Lina sat up in her bed frustrated. She still hadn't  
managed to fall asleep. 'Gaaaaahhhh! This is annoying!' Lina fumed. She  
stormed out of her bed and went straight for her refrigerator.

One thing about Lina's fridge was that it was usually always stocked to the  
brim with food. And this night was no exception.

Lina fumbled through her food stock and pulled out various things for a  
'snack'. Which included left over pizza from the previous night, two apples,  
a bag of chips, three muffins, two bagels with cream cheese, a bag of baby  
carrots, several slices of cheese, and a jug of distilled water. She  
situated herself in front of her TV set and turned it on.

...

Lina's eyes snapped wide open from the sudden large buzzing noise. She  
blinked in confusion wondering what was going on. It took her a few moments to assess the situation. She was sitting on her couch surrounded by empty plates and bags, the TV was on and someone was at her door buzzing to get in. 'I must have fallen asleep. What time is it?' Lina was about to go look for her watch when the door buzzer buzzed again. 'Oh right, that. Who'd be here so early anyway?' Lina walked over to the intercom and pushed the talk button. "Hello?"

_"Miss Lina, it's me Sylphiel. Would you please let me in?" _

Lina blinked in confusion. 'Why is she here?' "Sure wait a moment." Lina  
pushed the other button to unlock the lobby door. Then she unlocked her  
front door as Sylphiel walked up. "Why are you here so early?" Lina asked  
yawning.

"Miss Lina it's almost 2:30 in the afternoon!"

Lina frowned. "Damn, slept longer then I thought… Hey why aren't you in  
school right now? Classes are still in session."

"Well I told Headmaster Gaberieve that I was helping you out with a mission  
to get more information about the second eye and that it would be good if I  
could get to your place early. He was more than eager to let me leave."  
Sylphiel grinned walking in with several bags in hand.

"I don't think he'd be so eager if he knew what exactly you were helping me  
prepare for…" Lina mused out loud. "You didn't tell him did you?"

"Heavens no. Though what are you going to do when he finds out Miss Lina?"

"Tell him the truth I guess. Nothing else I can do. What's all the bags  
for?" Lina asked with a raised eyebrow. Sylphiel had said that she was going  
to bring some makeup but Lina had expected a small makeup bag. Instead  
Sylphiel had several large bags.

Sylphiel put the bags down on the floor and showed her the contents. Yes  
there was makeup, lots of it. And for just about any skin type you could  
think of and a lot of it wasn't even opened. But that wasn't all, there was  
a curling iron, a curling set, hairspray, mousse, gel, brushes, combs,  
hairpins, hair ties, several packages of bobby pins, hairclips, a hair  
straighter, skin creams, moisturizers, and a large array of perfumes.  
Sylphiel had a whole cosmetics store lying on Lina's floor.

"What the heck? Why do you have so much stuff?" Lina exclaimed looking  
through the beauty products.

"I used to be a cosmetics salesperson. They used to give us lots of free  
samples." Sylphiel said blushing.

"Wow… you're not going to use half this junk on me are you?" Lina narrowed her eyes at Sylphiel.

"All depends on what you want to do."

"Can't I just wear the dress and shoes? Do I have to bother with all this  
makeup and hair stuff?" Lina frowned.

"Miss Lina you want it to be convincing?"

Lina grumbled.

"Why don't you try on the dress and we'll see what we can do from there."


	8. Chapter Seven

_Author's Notes: Minor edits and changed a few things here and there. Nothing really noticeable. And again sorry or the formatting. Also snagged this from my mailing list. I really wish I still have my originals. Stupid crashed computer... This chapter and chapter eight are going to be left aligned and looking like an email. _

_Anyway, it's time to party!_

**Ruins Raiders**  
Chapter Seven, Dueling Dances  
By Relm

Lina grumble as she tried to scrub the gunk off her face as she showered.  
For hours Sylphiel tried different combinations of make up on Lina's face  
till it was right. And Lina wasn't allowed to do anything till Sylphiel got  
it right. Which included eating. And when Sylphiel was done Lina still  
wasn't allowed to eat. No, Lina had to shower first.

'She better have a nice big breakfast ready for me when I get out.' Lina  
mentally grumbled as she showered. The only way Sylphiel could get Lina to  
aggress to shower first and eat later was if Sylphiel promised to make Lina  
a large breakfast. Even though of course it was more or less lunchtime, but  
we'll ignore that.

Lina got out of the shower and towelled off. She wrapped her hair in a towel  
and slipped into a terry cloth housecoat. Immediately as Lina got out of the  
bathroom her nostrils were filled with the smells of food. It took all of  
her control not to run into the kitchen in a feeding frenzy. No she needed  
to get some clothing on first. Hastily Lina ran into her room and threw on  
some clothing and speeded to the kitchen.

As promised Sylphiel had a very large breakfast all ready for Lina. Which of  
course Lina had wolfed down in a matter of moments. Once she was done she patted her stomach content. "Ahhhh! That was great!" Lina grinned.

Sylphiel frowned. "I hope you can still fit into your dress." She said commenting on Lina's stomach.

"Hey!" Lina glared.

"Anyway we should get you ready. Your hair is probably going to take a  
while." Sylphiel ignored Lina's protest and went to take her hair out of the  
towel.

Lina's hair was a tangled mass of dark red curls and waves that stuck out at  
all different angels.

Sylphiel frowned again looking at the dark red mass. "What do you want me to do with it?"

Lina shrugged. "Whatever would look nice with the dress. You're the expert."

Sylphiel frowned again. "Well since you are dressing up we should probably  
put your hair up. But I kinda like the curly idea. Hmmm… I know what I'll  
do." Sylphiel decided and went to work on untangling Lina's hair.

After what seemed like hours Sylphiel was finally done. "Go ahead Miss Lina,  
take a look at yourself." Sylphiel grinned handing Lina a mirror.

Lina grabbed the mirror with a scowl. 'No stupid party is worth this much  
effort.' She didn't enjoy being stuck in one position while Sylphiel pulled  
at her hair. So Lina's face was still angry when she looked at herself in  
the mirror. But that didn't last long. Lina's hair was pulled back with a  
few clips with a few strands of hair hanging loosely out of the mass of  
hair. And her hair was extra curly. Lina had to admit it looked good. "Wow…"

"So you like it?" Sylphiel asked grinning.

"Yes it looks good."

"Good! Time for your makeup!"

Lina groaned.

***

East Rixx was noisy with music and talking. Chester Hall, one of the main  
halls of East Rixx was where the party was being held. Many people were  
dancing, drinking, talking and eating. Some were just standing staring at  
the people. Among them was East Rixx's head History teacher, Zelgadis  
Greywers dressed in a standard black tux.

_(Author's note: I may as well say this now, Zelgadis is human in this fanfic.  
He is not a chimera. In fact everyone in this fanfic is human. That includes  
Xellos, Filia, Val etc.)_

Zelgadis hated these little parties that East Rixx held. He didn't see the  
point of him being there. He never danced or socialized, he usually just  
stood there watching people and doing at most eating or drinking. People  
usually tried to engage in conversation with the disgruntled history teacher  
but Zelgadis usually answered with one-word answers and tried to ignore them in hopes for them to leave them alone. Most of the time they got the message and stopped bothering him, but there was always those few individuals that were stupid and kept on talking.

Even though he hated attending these parties he still went. Why? Because he had too. It was mandatory by Headmaster Sailune. If he didn't go, he would get in trouble. That went for all members of the teaching staff at the  
school. Everyone had to attend. Not that many minded. Most people were happy about having to attend the parties. They thought it was great being forced to take time off from their busy schedules to party and have fun.

Of course Zelgadis didn't think of these parties as fun. To him it was a  
waste of time. There were a million things he could have been doing at that  
moment but instead he was stuck standing in a noisy room bored out of his  
mind. One time he had tried to bring some of his work to one of the parties  
in the past but Headmaster Sailune confiscated his papers and told him that  
work was not allowed. And Zelgadis had questioned why he needed to be at the stupid parties, but Headmaster Sailune never gave a straight answer. Perhaps it was because most of these parties were charity parties and Headmaster Sailune wanted everyone's support (and donations). And as of that moment East Rixx had raised over $14,000 for the children's charity.

Zelgadis grumbled as he attempted to blend in with the wall in hopes to not  
be noticed. But of course that was a ridiculous thought because many female  
members of the faculty staff were making eyes at him. Including Headmaster Sailune's two daughters. Zelgadis let out an unconscious shudder.

"Not having fun are we? You know Professor Greywers you really need to learn how to let loose and unwind." Xellos, Zelgadis' teaching assistant commented grinning, as he stood right next to Zelgadis.

Zelgadis didn't even see Xellos coming. "If I don't want to have fun I don't  
have to. No one can force someone to enjoy themselves." He continued to  
glare around the room.

"Well I think it's because you don't have anything important to do while  
you're at these parties rather than giving support to the charities. But I  
think I may have some information that you might find interesting." Xellos  
commented mischievously.

Zelgadis raised an eyebrow. "What information?"

"Well you'll never guess who decided to show up to the party as well."  
Xellos' voice was mysterious.

Zelgadis looked around but didn't notice anyone unusual. "Who?"

"Her." Xellos pointed to a person on the other side of the room.

Zelgadis followed Xellos' gaze and saw whom he was talking about. It was a  
woman a year or two younger then Zelgadis with her back somewhat turned to him. She had a petite frame though wasn't short and her red curly hair was tied back loosely with a few curls hanging out. Her dark red dress tied in  
two spots in the back, around her neck and a little below the back part of  
her waist leaving most of her back exposed. The dress was form fitting in  
the front and flared out in the skirt area with one long slit in the dress  
on her left side. She wore small somewhat simple diamond earrings that had  
small tear drop shaped pearls hanging from them. On her wrist she was  
wearing a matching bracelet. Her face was done up with some light makeup and she currently looked very bored with the conversation she was in. It was a woman that he knew very well, though Zelgadis was shocked to see her dressed as she was. He was used to seeing his rival dressed in normal pants and shirts with no makeup.

Zelgadis gasped. "Lina Inverse! Why would she be here? You need an  
invitation if you don't work at the university."

"You forget my friend; Headmaster Sailune sends invitations to all the top  
professors around the area to his parties. Though this is the first time  
someone from North Rixx has taken up the invitation. Don't you find that  
odd?" Xellos smiled.

"She must be up to something." Zelgadis narrowed his eyes at her.

"You're probably right. Which is why someone was elected to keep an eye on  
her." Xellos started to shove Zelgadis in her direction.

"Me? Why me? And who decided that?" Zelgadis stomped his foot.

"Because you're the one who's bored silly. And it was Headmaster Sailune that decided. So you'd better get going, your lady looks as though she needs some saving." Xellos pushed Zelgadis again in Lina's direction.

Zelgadis grumbled as he went to approach his arch rival.

Lina was caught in a conversation with Larry Baldstein. Everyone on the  
faculty staff knew to stay away from Professor Baldstein. He was a physics  
teacher that was as interesting as a speck of dust. And if you did get stuck in a conversation with him he'd just keep talking and talking and never  
stopping.

'I guess I'd better go 'save' her. But how am I going to get her away from  
him without getting trapped in a conversation myself?' Zelgadis frowned.  
There was one way he knew that would work for sure, but dreaded doing. But with no other choice he gritted his teeth and went through with it. "Would you care to dance?" Zelgadis asked tapping Lina on the shoulder.

Lina didn't hear who it was that asked her to dance but she didn't care.  
'Anything has got to be better than this.' "I would love to. That is if you  
don't mind Professor Baldstien?"

Professor Baldstien just smiled. "Oh no you two kids go ahead. We can  
continue our conversation later."

Lina mentally cringed. "Yes we'll have to." She went to her 'dance partner'  
and almost screamed when she saw who it was. 'Him?'

"Well aren't you going to thank me?" Zelgadis asked smugly as they went to  
the dance floor.

"Why would I want to thank you for?" Lina glared. He was the last person  
that she wanted to dance with. But if she didn't dance Professor Baldstien  
would probably trap her in another conversation. 'Damnit trapped between a  
rock and a hard place.'

"Professor Baldstien is a nice person but he tends to babble. Chances of  
getting away from him during a conversation alone are nearly impossible. So  
I saved you."

Lina rolled her eyes. "What makes you think I wasn't enjoying the  
conversation?"

"Then you look very bored when you're interested." Zelgadis snickered.

They reached the dance floor and stared at each other for a moment. It was  
like as if both had forgotten the simple mechanics of dancing. They looked  
around them and then looked back.

Hesitantly Lina put her right hand on his shoulder nearly causing Zelgadis  
to flinch.

Zelgadis mentally shook his head and took her hand in his and brought his  
other hand to her waist. And due to the lack of fabric covering Lina's back  
Zelgadis' fingers made physical contact with her skin. Which made Zelgadis  
nearly snap his hand back.

Both had slight red tints to their cheeks, neither was really accustomed to  
dancing so they just stood there for a moment. Until they realized that  
people were staring at them and then they started dancing.

"So why are you here?" Zelgadis finally asked after dancing for a while.

"To enjoy a party. Is that a crime?" Lina somewhat snapped. The  
embarrassment had lost its' affect at this time.

"But North Rixx staff never attend East Rixx parties and vice versa."

"Well I was invited. If you don't want North Rixx teachers at your parties  
then don't send them invitations."

"Even so Headmaster Sailune never expects any North Rixx teachers to attend. Usually they don't. Likewise with your parties. So why are you breaking the tradition?" Zelgadis looked her in the eye.

Lina stared at him back with mischievousness in her eyes. "I like being  
original. And if anyone is going to break a stupid tradition it might as  
well be me. And besides, I was out of town during North Rixx's last party so  
I figured I'd go to this one to make up for it." Lina grinned.

"And risk getting fired from your employer? No, you're here for a reason and  
it isn't that."

"And what? You're going to find out what it is? Is that why you asked me to  
dance?" Lina asked in a daringly.

"…"

"Because you're really taking a big risk. Imagine all the rumours that are  
going to be spread about this."

Zelgadis' eyes bugged out. "What are you talking about?"

"Us here, dancing. I mean I know for a fact that you hate these little  
parties. And you never dance unless someone begs you to. And here you are  
dancing with a woman that you asked to dance. Of course there is also the  
fact that I'm here at the party too. People are going to think I came to the  
party just to see you. That we have some secret relationship." Lina grinned  
suggestively while motioning to the people around the room.

Zelgadis looked, everyone was staring at them. Some were shocked; somewhere grinning while others (mostly women) were glaring at them angrily. "Damn. Oh well I'll leave that up to Headmaster Sailune to dispel those rumours seeing how this is his fault. But I'm going to be watching you. You're not going to get away with whatever you have planned, count on that."

Lina rolled her eyes. 'Damn he's serious. And I bet he's not going to be  
easy to lose.'

The two of them danced to several songs till they finally decided to take a  
break. Many of the female partygoers scowled at the sight of Lina. No one  
had been able to monopolize Zelgadis' time like she had.

Lina ran off to get some food while women whom had been waiting impatiently to ask him to dance bombarded Zelgadis.

It was several minutes before Zelgadis could get sight of his red haired  
rival. And he found her dancing with Ret Gallagher a fine arts teacher that  
was a notorious flirt. Zelgadis didn't know why but he disliked the idea of  
Lina dancing with Ret, but still he watched them like a hawk.

Zelgadis kept a close eye on the two but shortly after their third dance in  
a row Zelgadis blinked as Ret and Lina went behind a few couples. Ret  
emerged from the crowd while Lina didn't. 'Where did she go?' Zelgadis  
looked frantically but couldn't find Lina anywhere.

"Ret have you seen Professor Inverse?" Zelgadis finally asked Ret after  
searching for a few moments.

"That woman is like the wind. One moment I'm talking to her next she  
disappears. Though she sure is cute. I can see why you were monopolizing her so much." Ret grinned giving Zelgadis a light punch on the shoulder.

"No it's not like- oh nevermind." Zelgadis looked around again but Lina was  
not anywhere in the party. 'She's snuck off somewhere. But where?'


	9. Chapter Eight

_Author's Notes: Once again sorry about the formatting. This should be the last part that is like this. _

**Ruins Raiders**  
Chapter Eight, The Library  
By Relm

'That was too easy.' Lina grinned as she poked around East Rixx's library.  
The library was just as big as North Rixx's which wasn't surprising. Both  
schools tried to out due each other in all fronts. That also included  
structure size. It wasn't till the city council stepped in and stopped the  
madness. So both libraries were stuffed to the max with books. Good thing  
East Rixx's library was just as neatly organized as North Rixx.

Lina fished through her purse for her mini flashlight. Though small the  
little light illuminated a large area. She would have turned on the lights  
but that would attract too much unwanted attention.

Lina flashed her light on the bookshelves squinting while trying to read the  
titles of the vast amount of books in front of her. But with the dim light  
and less than perfect eyesight she wasn't able to make much sense of the  
words. "Damnit!" Lina cursed under her breath. She fished around her purse  
again, this time for her glasses.

With a quick search Lina determined that the books she wanted were not  
around. Lina turned her gaze to the only door in the room marked  
'Restricted'. The door was simple enough and was locked shut with a simple  
combination lock.

Lina grinned as she went straight for the door. Combination locks were  
child's play for Lina. In a matter of moments the lock made a click sound as  
it opened. The door creaked loudly as Lina peered into the room.

In the room there was a long table with a desk, computer, a few lamps and  
bookshelves. Books and papers were everywhere.

"Makes my place look neat and tidy." Lina commented chuckling while turning  
off her flashlight and flicking on one of the lamps. "Now to get to work."

...

Zelgadis sprinted off to the East Rixx museum. He didn't peg Lina to be a  
thief but he couldn't be sure.

'We don't have anything on the third eye that she wouldn't know already. So  
she can't be in the library. But she wouldn't steal the second eye, would  
she?'

Zelgadis' dress shoes made loud thud noises that echoed through the halls as he ran as fast as he could. With the doors in view Zelgadis' pace quickened. He went to open the doors, but they were locked. 'She isn't here…?' To make sure Zelgadis pulled out his keys and unlocked the door. The second eye of Trinibee stood gleaming in its glass display case. Everything seemed to be in order.

'If she's not here then where?' Zelgadis frowned dumbfounded. But then a  
thought flashed through his head. 'She could have gone to the washroom. Why didn't I check there?' Zelgadis mentally cursed. He felt extremely foolish.

Zelgadis locked the doors once more and made his way back to the party. On the way he passed by the library doors and didn't think much of it as he  
walked. But he backed up to face the doors once more. 'Wouldn't hurt to  
check before I go back. It's not like I'm in a rush to get back to the  
stupid party.'

The library was as dark as you'd expect, only except for faint beams of  
light coming from the space under the 'Restricted' research room. Either  
someone was in there or someone had left the lights on. 'Why is she in  
here?'

...

Lina was so pre occupied with looking through the books that she wasn't even aware that someone was in the library with her. Not that she would have known that Zelgadis was there even if she had been listening; Zelgadis was extremely light on his feet when he wanted to be.

When the door suddenly opened Lina did the first she would usually do if she  
was surprised suddenly by someone, Lina lunged at the said person hitting  
them hard and knocking them down flat on their back with Lina straddling  
them with her legs.

Zelgadis coughed as he had the wind knocked out of him. He looked dumbly at the person sitting on his stomach. "Huh?" Was all that he could manage to get out.

"What are you doing here?" Lina snapped at Zelgadis.

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here? You're not supposed to be in this room! You're supposed to be at the party." Zelgadis sat up slightly  
bringing his scowling face closer to her scowling face.

"What about you? Felt like ditching the party huh?"

"I was looking for you!" Zelgadis yelled.

Lina was going to yell something back when she noticed their current  
position then she started to blush furiously.

Zelgadis stared at her confused. Then he too noticed just exactly how they  
were situated on the ground and he too started to blush.

Immediately the two scampered away from each other.

After a few moments of silence Zelgadis finally regained his composure.  
"What the heck are you looking for anyway? You already know more then what we do about the third eye of Trinibee." Zelgadis frowned.

Lina snorted. "Who says I'm looking for information on the third eye?" Lina  
went back to the books she had laid out on the table.

Zelgadis took a good look at the books that Lina had chosen. "Wait a minute; these are all books on the second eye. Why would you want to look up information on that eye? We already have it."

"None of your business." Lina snapped scoped up the books that she had  
marked. She went to leave the room, walking right past Zelgadis flicking her  
flash light on again.

Zelgadis quickly turned the lamp off and went to follow her. "What are you  
going to do with those books? You aren't planning on stealing them are you?  
Because you know that I won't just stand by and let you do that." Zelgadis  
declared grabbing her arm.

Lina jerked her arm away. "I don't intend to steal anything. I'm not like  
you."

"I never stole anything!"

"But if I hadn't been there at the time you would have."

"What are you talking about?" Zelgadis yelled in mock annoyance. He knew  
exactly what she was talking about. Though he wasn't going to admit that he  
had been there at that time.

"You know damn well what I'm talking about. You tried to steal a book from  
North Rixx library."

"You have no proof that it was me. And even if you did I would never steal  
anything."

"Then what were you doing with the book then? Hoping to read it and leave?" Lina pressed further for information.

Suddenly Zelgadis heard footsteps and voices in the hall outside the  
library. Without thinking he covered Lina's mouth and shut off her light.

Lina was about to protest until she heard the others. She stood still as a  
board waiting for the people in the hall to leave.

"I think they're gone now." Zelgadis said quietly letting go of his death  
grip on Lina.

"What the hell was that for?" Lina hit him on the head with her flashlight.  
She turned it on with a furious look on her face.

"What do you mean? They could have found us!"

"Why would you care? You work at this school, not me." Lina spat out not  
liking the fact that he had grabbed her.

Zelgadis just stood there puzzled. 'Why did I do that?' "It doesn't matter.  
What are you going to do with those books?" Zelgadis changed the subject.

Lina ignored him and went over to the photocopy machine and proceeded to  
begin copying all the pages of the books she had on her.

"I still don't see why you're looking for information on the second eye. Or  
does the second eye serve as a key to finding the third eye?"

Lina just glared at him instead of answering. "I'm surprised you're letting  
me do this. Shouldn't you be stopping me?"

Zelgadis frowned. "I have no idea what you're up to. But seeing how we have the second eye I don't see why letting you read information on it would  
necessarily be a bad idea. I've read all these books very thoroughly so it  
wouldn't be like I'd be letting you know anything that I already didn't  
know."

"So you're just going to let me do this? How generous of you." Lina smirked.

"Well you did lend us that book of yours."

"Was it helpful?"

"It was quite helpful. I still don't understand why you would lend us  
something so useful when we're both after the same thing. Especially with the risk of getting in trouble with your boss."

"As long as you get the book back to me by next week in tact then I should  
be fine." Lina said smugly. She loved the confusion she was causing. East  
Rixx was completely confused to what was going on. Especially Zelgadis. "You know you're taking a big risk letting me do this."

"You're going to do it no matter what I say. You'd probably knock me  
unconscious if I tried to stop you." His back still hurt from being thrown  
to the ground on it. Whoever thought that someone so tiny could use so much force.

"I wonder what they are thinking at the party." Lina murmured to herself.

"What do you mean?"

"Well we've been gone an awful long time. Someone might get suspicious to  
why you and I suddenly disappeared from the party."

Zelgadis paled. After making such a scene looking for her at the party no  
doubt the others were thinking he was looking for her for 'other' reasons.  
And seeing how he hadn't returned in a while that would just confirm their  
thinking. Xellos and Headmaster Sailune were the only two that Zelgadis knew  
about that were aware of him keeping tabs on Lina. 'Oh great. How the rumours are going to fly.'

"And even if we go back at different times that's going to cause a stir  
among them. Does your school have policies against teaching staff dating  
other teachers from rival schools?" Lina said with a raised eyebrow.

"No."

"Good. Well I'm done, it's been fun Professor Greywers, we'll have to do  
this again sometime." Lina smiled gathering up her papers.

"You're leaving?"

"I've got what I came for. Unless you wanted me to stay a little longer?"

Zelgadis violently shook his head. "But you know I'm walking with you to  
your car to make sure you've left the school grounds."

"Well then we'd better put the books away first." Lina stacked the books on  
Zelgadis' arms in a quick manner that almost made him drop them.

...

Aside from the muffled music, the halls were pretty quiet. Zelgadis poked  
his head into the hallway looking for other partygoers. When he deemed the  
coast clear he motioned for Lina to follow him. The two snuck around the  
school while trying not to be noticed by anyone. And for the most part they  
were successful. Well almost.

'My my what are those two up to?' Xellos grinned as he watched the two. 'It  
could be disastrous if someone spread rumours about this.' Xellos' grin  
widened.

...

Lina's car was parked fairly far away so it was a bit of walk to get to the  
old clunker.

The car was older then Lina, tan brown with only a few spots that were  
discoloured where the body had been obviously repaired for rust. It wasn't a  
bad little car but it had seen better days. Small dents and scratches all  
over the body of the car conveyed that it had had been in several minor  
accidents.

"Couldn't you afford a better car on your teaching wages or does North Rixx  
really pay so little?" Zelgadis sarcastically commented as Lina put her  
recently acquired papers in the trunk of her car.

"Yes I can afford better, but I happen to like this car. The insurance is  
low and it has good gas mileage. And besides it was my dad's car." Lina  
stuck her nose up at him as she changed her heels in favour from some worn in running shoes. Her feet hurt from those stupid high heels so it was a relief to get them into something comfortable.

"I won't be seeing you around for while, alright?" Zelgadis more demanded  
rather then asked.

"As long as you stay away from my school I'll stay away from yours. And do  
me a favour, give the book to me at my house."

"How do you know that I even know where you live?"

Lina grinned as she started up her car. She drove off leaving Zelgadis  
standing in the parking lot alone.

'Well better get back to the party.' Zelgadis let out of heavy sigh.

Little did he know the damage Xellos had been causing while he was away.


	10. Chapter Nine

**Ruins Raiders**

Chapter Nine, Rumours Will Fly

By Relm

Zelgadis slowly made his way back to the party. He wanted nothing more than to ditch the party and go home but he knew Headmaster Sailune would be furious. So despite what he wanted to do he went back.

Immediately upon entering the room everyone stopped what they were doing and snapped their heads to stare at Zelgadis.

Zelgadis felt himself shrink under everyone's intense staring. 'Damn the rumours couldn't have spread that fast could they?' He thought in disbelief.

"My my Professor Greywars, could have at least cleaned your appearance up before coming back." Xellos commented snidely while approaching him from the side.

By this time everyone at the party had stopped staring at Zelgadis and resumed normal party activities. Though they still regarded Zelgadis suspiciously and he was still the main topic of conversation.

"What are you talking about?" Zelgadis hissed at Xellos.

"Well maybe you should take a look at yourself. It's very apparent by your appearance on what your recent activities have been." Xellos snickered.

Zelgadis gave himself a quick look over. His pants were slightly wrinkled as was his jacket and his dress shirt, which was no longer tucked in. His tie was loose and hung a little towards the left. His shoes were scuffed and he presumed that his hair was not in place. 'Damn. I ran after her and she knocked me down. Why didn't I check myself over first? Now it really looks she and I…' "We didn't do anything!" Zelgadis exclaimed exasperatedly.

"It doesn't look that way. And I doubt no one will believe you. Not after someone told that rumour about you and Professor Inverse alone in the library. And sneaking off in the halls later on." Xellos tried to suppress his grin.

"What someone saw us? Damn what am I going to do?" Zelgadis rubbed his temples in the hopes to sooth his developing headache.

"Well at least it's about you and a pretty lady like Professor Inverse. Most people thought you were gay."

"What?" Zelgadis exclaimed. He was going to protest that remark when he thought about something. "It was you spreading the rumours wasn't it Xellos?"

"Well I might have mentioned something to someone." Xellos laughed nervously.

"I can't believe you! You know damn well what I was doing with her!" Zelgadis practically screamed at his assistant.

"What were you two doing?" Xellos asked curiously.

"What the hell? What do you mean what were we doing? What do you think we were doing?" Zelgadis got really red in the face. Was it was the anger or the insinuations we'll never know.

"Well I thought you were just keeping tabs on her. But from the looks of it you two engaged in some rather physical activities."

"I ran around like crazy to find her and when I did she knocked me over! I wouldn't do 'that' with the likes of her!" Zelgadis exclaimed.

"Why not? You don't think Professor Inverse is an attractive woman?"

"No I mean yes oh shut up! You'd better fix this damn rumour right at once!" Zelgadis was about ready to smack Xellos silly.

"I will, I will. But you should really calm down, people are staring." Xellos attempted to calm Zelgadis.

"When weren't they?"

"What was she doing here anyway? And where is she now?" Xellos asked changing the subject.

"She left. Strangely enough she was looking for information on the second eye."

"The second eye? Why?"

"I don't know."

...

Lina hummed slightly as she approached her home. She was very pleased with herself. The information on the second eye was hers, and she caused a deal of trouble for Professor Zelgadis Greywars. 'Heh, heh I wonder what everyone back at the party is saying. Well he deserved it. Though he was a good dancer.' Lina thought with a slight smile tugging at her lips as she went to her door.

Once she realized what she was thinking Lina shook her head violently. "What the hell am I thinking? Zelgadis Greywars of all people! Am I crazy? I hate that guy!" Lina exclaimed while putting her purse and recently acquired information on her table.

Ever since Lina met Zelgadis she hated him. It was during that dig in Matgi that she met him for the first time. Lina had an appointment with the leader of the dig Mr. Mathers. She was supposed to meet Mr. Mathers to sign a deal to let her school have the rights to publish the findings of the dig. Only she never got the chance to talk to him because someone else got to him first. And that person also stole the rights to the dig. When Lina found out what had happened she was so mad and wanted to kill the person who did it. And when she finally met Zelgadis had had the nerve to suggest they go out for drinks. Of course he didn't know who she was. But after that he did, and he knew to stay as far away from her as possible. But that didn't usually happen. Quite often did the two of find themselves bumping into each other going after the same item for their respective school.

What had pissed Lina the most about her first encounter with the great Professor Greywars was that a part of her wanted to accept his date proposal. She would have liked it better if he hadn't been so hansom and charming.

'He's such a smug jerk. Well I hope he's going through hell right now. Heaven knows I'm going to get in trouble for going to that party. But it's all worth it for this.' Lina grinned as she sat down at her table with her new research lying in front of her. 'Well time to get to work!' Lina squealed with delight as she began reading.

...

Lina awoke up to the sound of her telephone ringing. "Huh? What the…?" Lina snapped her head from the table. She fell asleep while reading the previous night. In fact she was still wearing her dress.

Disoriented Lina ran to get the phone not know exactly where it was.

"Hello?" Lina said breathlessly as she finally found the phone on the other side of the room.

"_Hello Professor Inverse."_ Headmaster Gaberieve said in a low tone.

Lina almost dropped the phone. "Hello Headmaster Gaberieve. How are you doing?" Lina asked quietly.

"_Fine, fine. Or at least I was still I found out a little piece of information."_

"Oh really, what's that?" Lina asked knowing damn well what he was referring to.

"_Oh just that one of my faculty members attended a party at our rival school. And that person was YOU!"_ Headmaster Gaberieve yelled into the phone.

Lina winced in pain from the noise. "Headmaster Gaberieve I can explain-"

"_Oh you'd better explain it to me right now! Never before have I ever had one of my teachers go to one of 'their' parties. I've been through heck with all the board members. I'm the laughing stalk of Greater Rixx! Headmaster Sailune is never going to let this down! What the heck where you doing at East Rixx University?"_

"Photocopying information from some books on fixing the third eye that only East Rixx has." Lina answered matter-of-factly.

"_Oh."_ Headmaster Gaberieve got really quiet.

Lina nervously continued. "Because you see if I snuck onto campus to poke around their library one more time they will press charges. And that would be much more embarrassing for our school. And I can't get anyone to sneak in there and check for me, they've got profiles on everyone I'm associated with. I didn't know what to do but then Sylphiel suggested the idea of the party."

"_It was Miss Nels Rada's idea?"_

"Yes she suggested it and pointed out that I did get an invitation. So it seemed like a good opportunity. And from what I've read through so far from what I got it seems I got some really helpful stuff."

"_Uh-huh."_ Headmaster Gaberieve said flatly.

"Yes and I'm really sorry for the trouble but it was the only legal way for me to get the information that I could think of."

"_Well our school was first to break this silly tradition, so I guess that shows we're more civilized. And since we already invite them to our parties even if one of their staff goes we still beat them to it first. So that's something to be proud of I suppose." _

"Yes, yes. So you see it's a good thing I went." Lina insisted happy that she wasn't going to get fired.

"_I suppose it was a good idea for you to infiltrate their library…"_ Headmaster Gaberieve's tone was little strange.

'Why do I feel like there's a 'but' coming?' Lina thought to herself.

"_But as for you using it as an excuse to have a romantic rendezvous with East Rixx's head history teacher, that wasn't such a good idea."_ His sounded very angry.

"WHAT?" Lina exclaimed. 'Oh god the rumour spread that far already?'

"_Yes I heard that you and 'him' snuck off together during the party. What you do on your own time is your business but when you do it so publicly with a rival school's faculty member you cause problems for our schools. I would have thought you of all people would know to keep your personal life secret. And with one of 'them'?"_

"I am not dating Professor Greywars! I don't even like him. I hate him! He's the most repulsive man in the universe! I wouldn't date him even I was paid to do it! Everyone just thought something was going on because I snuck out to search their library. And he ran out to find where I was. Headmaster Sailune probably had him keep tabs on me. I'm pretty sure you would have Sylphiel do the same thing if of them came to one of our school parties. But of course some stupid idiot decided to tell everyone that him and I were sneaking off to meet each other."

"_So you're saying that there's nothing going on between you and Professor Greywars, you two are not dating?"_

"Not in a million years."

"_Good that's a relief because I don't know what I'd do if I found out one of my faculty members was dating someone from East Rixx's staff. Keep me posted on your progress Inverse."_

"I will." Lina laughed nervously.

"_Have a nice day." _

"You too." Lina hung up the phone once she heard a click on the other end. She let out a heavy sigh. 'It's a good thing I'm not dating Professor Greywars… I would lose my job for sure.'

...

Zelgadis poured through the information he had on the remaining eye, the book Lina had lent him helped a great deal. He was only moments away from a revelation.

'If this is right then the temple should be located here… I found it!' Zelgadis nearly jumped up from his chair. But instead he sat there thinking. 'This may not be the book Professor Inverse lent me but without that book I wouldn't have been able to find this one. There's absolutely no way she couldn't have figured this out. So why would she do this? Does she already have the last eye?' Zelgadis mused while tapping his index finger on the side of his head. 'No if she had found it, it would be all over the newspaper. No she has to be up to something else.'

"Well hard at work are we?" Xellos commented appearing right behind Zelgadis' shoulder.

Zelgadis practically jumped. He hadn't heard him enter the office. But then he never heard Xellos coming. Xellos always seemed to pop out of nowhere. He glared at the offending assistant. "Yes I am. Only I can't work with you hanging about, so do me a favour and leave." Zelgadis replied coldly.

"Gee touchy. I do have a reason for coming here."

"To annoy me?"

"Tisk, tisk Professor Greywars you should be careful how you talk, people might get the impression that you're rude." Xellos grinned.

"Get on with it." Zelgadis still wasn't happy with what Xellos had done. The ramifications of Xellos' rumour had been quite large. He'd been grilled by Headmaster Sailune and half the teacher staff at the university. Why any of them would care so much about him dating a teacher from their rival was beyond him. But still their 'concern' was bothersome. Xellos had 'attempted' to dispel the rumour but hadn't succeeded. Some of Zelgadis' co-workers refused to talk to him. He had been branded a traitor.

"Headmaster Sailune sent me to check up on you and report back with your progress. How are you doing with the research?" Xellos asked while tilting his head to the right giving Zelgadis a sideways glance. Or rather as close to being a glance seeing how Xellos' eyes were closed.

"I think I found where the temple is located-"

Xellos laughed in glee interrupting Zelgadis. "That's fantastic! I'll tell Headmaster Sailune and get you right on a plane!" He hopped off to tell Headmaster Sailune the news, not giving Zelgadis a chance to finish his sentence.

Zelgadis just sat there not amused by the situation. 'Why do I have a bad feeling about this?' He thought while letting out a heavy sigh.


	11. Chapter Ten

**Ruins Raiders**

Chapter Ten, Eye Spy

By Relm

Lina yawned loudly as she lifted her head from her desk. A piece of paper stuck to the side of her face from the drool that had dribbled from the right side of her mouth and dried overnight. Lina frowned and ripped the paper from her face and shook her head. She had spent yet another night researching till she fell asleep. Bones cracked as Lina stretched attempting to get some of the kinks out of her back and neck. But falling asleep with her back hunched over and her neck turned to one side left the muscles protesting in pain.

"Oww… I gotta stop doing this." Lina commented as she went to her kitchen and opened the fridge door. Instead of opening the door handle came off from the force and ended up in Lina's hand instead of being attached to the fridge.

"Stupid piece of junk." Lina muttered opened the fridge from the top of the door.

Instead of being greeted with a bounty of food, the fridge proved to be bare. There were a few assorted items but not a heck of a lot.

"Damn need to buy food." With Lina's peripheral vision she saw the little yellow piece of paper stuck to the fridge freezer door. She didn't need to look at it to know what it said. It said plain and simple, 'buy more food'.

Lina mentally cursed as she pulled practically all the current contents of her fridge. She hunted through the cupboards in search of things to cook with. With desired items in hand she pulled out her big skillet and started melting some butter. In the pan went eggs, diced cooked sausage, grated cheese, onions, taco meat, left over rice, celery, carrots, salsa and a whole slew of other ingredients and seasonings.

'It's a good thing I still had eggs.' Lina thought as she cooked up her mixed up scrambled eggs. This was not too uncommon for Lina. When it got down to the near end of her available food she usually just put whatever in a pan and cooked it up. Sometimes it was good, sometimes it was nasty. But she still ate it.

Lina had just finished cooking and was about to sit down and eat when the phone rang.

Debating on whether or not to answer the phone Lina finally gave in and snatched the little grey cordless phone from its' holder.

"Hello?" Lina answered making sure that the person on the end was aware she wasn't in a good mood.

"_Miss Lina it's Sylphiel. I'm so sorry. Am I to disturbing you?"_

Lina mentally kicked herself. "No, no. But I should be apologizing. That was a rude way to way to answer the phone. I was just about to have breakfast and I thought you were a telemarketer."

"_Well I can call back later if you'd like."_

"No it's okay. I'll just start eating while we talk if you don't mind. I'm pretty sure you must have some interesting news to tell me. So what's up?" Lina asked while cradling the phone with her shoulder as she dished out her breakfast.

"_Have you read the paper yet?"_

Lina frowned. "No, why?"

"_Then you'd better go get it and take a look."_

Lina got up and went to her door. The morning paper sat at her doorstep all neatly rolled up. She unrolled it and took at look at the front page. "'Threat to steal to steal First Eye of Trinibee.'" Lina read aloud. "What the heck?"

"_Last night the museum got an anonymous threat that someone was going to steal the first eye."_ Sylphiel explained.

"Why's the paper covering this? The museum must get tones of threats. What makes this one so special?"

"_Well the note was found on the display case."_

"So someone could have put the note while they visited-"

"_It was found after hours, after everything had been locked up. And the security officer didn't see anything on the case before he locked up."_

Lina frowned. "Either the person is good at picking locks or they have keys. Have they questioned the staff and security?"

"_Yes they did. No one has fessed up to the note. And the museum has no idea who could and would have done it."_

"Why do I have a feeling that you know more then what's in this article?"

"_I talked with the museum. They contacted the school looking for you. They want someone with knowledge on the eye to take a look at it. To see if it has been tampered with in any way."_

"I'm surprised they didn't contact East Rixx first looking for him. Seeing how 'he' found the second eye." Lina said in a mocking tone. Though it did please her that they were looking for her and not him.

"_They did. Professor Greywars happens to be out of the country at the moment. So we're their second choice." _

Lina mumbled something incoherently. "Great. So what time am I supposed to be there?"

"_They said any time after 4pm would be fine. I took the liberty of booking you a flight in a couple hours at Greater Rixx Airport. Flight number 46. Shall I call the museum back and let them know you are coming? Or should I tell them you're not and cancel the flight?"_

"Sure Sylphiel let them know I'm going. Are you going to come too?"

"_If you want me there then I'd love to."_

"Good." Lina yawned. "I'm surprised that the person that planted the note didn't just steal the eye while they were there. Why go through all that trouble to get into the place just to leave a damn note. That doesn't make sense."

"_Well I guess we'll just have to go there and see. Maybe the eye isn't what the thief is after. He or she could be using that as a decoy."_

"Getting everyone all concerned about protecting the eye and leaving whatever valuable items in the museum somewhat ignored... That could be it. But the thief would have to know that they would up security for the whole museum making it a lot harder to break in and steal stuff."

"_Maybe we're dealing with not so smart thief?"_

"I don't think so. Well I'll see you later then Sylphiel."

"_Okay bye."_

"Bye." Lina hung up the phone taping her fingers lightly in thought. 'Well today is certainly going to be an interesting day.'

...

Zelgadis sighed as he trekked through the Opaga Desert. He hadn't been given a moment of rest. As soon as Headmaster Sailune had found out about Zelgadis finding the eye's location he had sent him packing and shoved him on the earliest flight possible. That had been about twelve hours ago.

He had ditched his vehicle in favour of going the rest of the way on foot. He knew he was close and Zelgadis didn't want to accidentally miss it.

Using his tracker Zelgadis checked the latitude and longitude of his current position. 'According to the tracker the temple should be due west right ahead of me.'

The area in question was just beyond a cliff.

Zelgadis put the tracker back on his belt and jogged up to the edge. The sight below looked to be the destroyed remains of a Trinibee temple. 'An earthquake perhaps?' Zelgadis mused as he got closer.

There was no mistake, it was the temple and it had been destroyed recently. 'No she couldn't have gotten here first. That's not possible…"

...

Lina straightened out her jacket as she got out of the taxi. It was five minutes to four and she was outside the Royal Sailune Museum. And as expected Sylphiel was outside the doors waiting.

"Wow Miss Lina you look good. Very professional." Sylphiel commented as Lina met her on the stairs.

Lina shrugged. "Well I wanted to look professional. Better to look the part so that your opinions are more believable." Lina was dressed in a dark grey business suit, her hair was tied back with a hair clip and she was wearing her glasses. In her hands was her briefcase with detailed information on the first eye.

Upon entering the museum they were stopped by two security officers.

"What is your business here ladies?" One of the officers asked in a stern voice.

"We're from North Rixx University. Your director contacted our school. I'm Professor Lina Inverse and this is one of my assistants Sylphiel Nels Rada. She was the one your director spoke with." Lina answered as both her and Sylphiel showed their ids.

"Come this way. Mrs. Colins has been expecting you."

Lina and Sylphiel were led down the halls of the museum till they ended up in the room that housed the first eye exhibit. The room was filled with police officers gathering evidence. The only person not doing anything was a woman in her early forties with light brown hair. She stood by the display case and had a very concerned look on her face. Lina assumed that the woman was Mrs. Colins.

"Professor Inverse it's so good you could come. I'm Mrs. Colins the museum director." Mrs. Colins held her hand and shook Lina's.

"Well I'm glad I could be of assistance. Especially since Professor Greywars was unavailable." Lina said dryly.

"Ah yes Professor Greywars. He is out of country. Seeing how the head East Rixx is a descendant of the founders of this museum we contacted them first. And there was the part of the threat that mentioned the second eye. But they have been notified and we're just as happy to have you here. Your work is much more well known than Professor Greywars."

Lina frowned. "The second eye? What do you mean? What did the note say?"

Mrs. Collins nodded her head to one of the officers. The said officer left the room and returned with an evidence bag with the threat inside. "Take a look for yourself." Mrs. Collins handed her the note to look.

Lina held the bag from the top to prevent any smudging on the paper. It was a small note with was printed not handwritten. From the lack on heavy indentation Lina surmised that it had been printed on a computer. It simply said 'The First Eye is mine. The Second is next.' Lina frowned. "The person is taking like as though they already have the first eye."

"It's a possibility that the thief was foiled before he or she could complete the job."

Lina shook her head. "That doesn't add up." Lina looked at the eye in the case very carefully. The first eye was one that shined with different shades of amber, the second was red and the third was blue. But the first eye in the case lacked the brilliance that eye usually had. As well as the fact that design on the eye didn't look quite right. "No I'd say they already have it."

Everyone in the room gasped.

"What are you saying Professor Inverse?" Mrs. Collins demanded.

"That there in that display case is not the First Eye of Trinibee. It may be the most convincing fake I've ever seen but a fake is a fake." Lina mused.

"That is not possible!" Mrs. Collins exclaimed. "Even if the thief got past security there is no way he or she could have stolen the eye without alerting everyone."

"That's why I think this might be an inside job."

"Are you sure it's a fake?"

Lina pulled out a blown up photograph from her briefcase. "To someone who hasn't studied the eye as much as I have would be fooled. It's almost perfect. But take a look at this photograph." Lina handed the picture to the director.

Mrs. Collins looked from the photograph to the eye. But then shook her head. "I don't see what you're talking about. They look exactly the same to me."

"Take a closer look at the pattern. More importantly the left arch of the eye." Lina pointed to the spot on the photograph.

Mrs. Collins did as instructed and noticed what she was talking about. The arch in the eye in the display case was perfectly round where as the one in the picture dipped a little showing that the person making the design hadn't had steady hands.

"The real eye's pattern was hand carved; this one was most certainly done by a machine. And furthermore what we are looking at is probably a rounded chunk of amber. The real eye is made from an unknown substance with colors to change without the change of light or movement. The color on this gem is too flat. But by all means do a carbon dating test and test out the gem's chemical composition, then you'll know for sure if it's a fake."

...

Zelgadis sifted through the piles of rubble making his way to the underground tomb. It was by sheer luck that part of the tomb had sustained its' structure but he knew it wasn't safe.

"I should have brought someone with me. But no Headmaster Sailune was in such a damn hurry to get me here that I completely forgot about bringing help with me. If I die from cave in it will be his and Xellos' fault." Zelgadis muttered.

Zelgadis made his way as carefully as he could through the tomb till he reached an interesting area. Walking through it dipped downward as it was evident that ceiling had collapsed in on this particular room below him. He knew exactly what room he was looking at. It was the very room that was supposed to house the third eye. And from the condition of the room Zelgadis had an extremely good idea what had happened.

"How the hell did she get here first?" Zelgadis exclaimed. A piece of the wall above him whapped him on the head. "Can this day get any worse?" Zelgadis yelled out loud. A loud rumbled sound cued his impending doom. 'Ah crap.'

...

Lina yawned loudly as she and Sylphiel took the plane ride home. It had been a very long day. With help Lina proved the eye in the case was a fake.

Mrs. Collins had freaked out once she learned of that. The first eye of Trinibee was the Royal Sailune Museum's main exhibit. Even if they opened up the museum under pretences that the eye exhibit was under maintenance people were going to suspect that the eye was stolen. Especially considering those articles that had been published in several newspapers about the note.

'If Mrs. Collins is smart she'd better get a whole new museum staff. The thief had to have been an inside job and the only people that knew about the threat were police and museum staff. Not a trustworthy bunch.' Lina chuckled at that thought.

"What's so funny Miss Lina?" Sylphiel asked curiously.

"I was just thinking about Mrs. Collins' plight that's all."

Sylphiel scrunched up her face into a frown. "That's hardly a thing to laugh at."

"So I've got a dark sense of humour." Lina shrugged. "Seeing how I haven't been at work and we haven't talked much, why don't you tell me about what's been going on?"

"Well Headmaster Gaberieve has been in a real fit. He's been snapping at everyone; especially after that rumour about you and Professor Greywars started spreading around."

Lina frowned. "At least he's getting heck for it too. That's the only consolation."

"Really? I thought you might have had fun at the party. I did hear that you and Professor Greywars were dancing together. Was that true?"

"Yeah I did dance with him. You told me I needed to do some dancing in order not to appear suspicious. Well more so then usual."

Sylphiel grinned. "Yes but I didn't mean dancing with your nemesis. But I guess it would have been tempting. He is such a handsome man to begin with. And I bet he was a wonderful dancer."

Lina rolled her eyes in disgust which got a chuckle out of Sylphiel.

...

Lina paid off the cab driver and got out and stepped onto her street. The night air nipped at her so Lina crossed her arms in order to try and retain some heat.

The sky was clear of clouds and dotted with little stars. Though it was a beautiful sight Lina hurried to her apartment. Once at her door she brought her key to the lock. But before she could open it someone grabbed her from behind.

Lina whirled around elbowing the potential assailant in the gut. He made an 'ooof' sound as he hit the ground pulling her down with him.

"Not the first time you've got me on my back." Zelgadis commented in annoyance.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Lina scampered off him and glared him in the eye.

"I was returning your book." Zelgadis regained his composure holding the book up for her to see.

"I wasn't expecting you to be returning it so soon." Lina eyed him suspiciously. She noted his appearance. His hair was a mess dotted white by the sand that had dusted it. His clothing was dirty again with sand and blood stains and the parts of his body visible from his clothing were bandaged. 'What the hell happened to him?'

"Yes well I am already finished with it."

"Oh? So you found out where the temple is?" Lina tried to suppress her grin.

"Yes I did. In fact I even went and found it."

"Really you don't say."

"Why didn't you tell me you already found the eye?" Zelgadis demanded in a deadly voice.


	12. Chapter Eleven

**Ruins Raiders**

Chapter Eleven, Dinner and an Eye

By Relm

"I'm sorry; I'm not sure what you're talking about." Lina said innocently.

"Don't play dumb with me. You know damn well what I'm talking about. I went to the temple and checked out its' tomb. It had been destroyed by a Makla booby trap. And those traps aren't active unless the sacred item of the temple, in this case the third eye of Trinibee, is removed from its' alter. And the only way that could happen is if someone took the third eye. And I don't know a single person other than myself and you that could find it."

"If I had it don't you think it would be all over the newspapers?" Lina flashed him a sly grin.

"I've been thinking about that. I don't why you've been keeping it a secret. But I know you have!" Zelgadis insisted.

Lina rolled her eyes. "Even if I did why would you care? Did I bruise your ego? I'm surprised you're even here wasting time. I would have thought you'd be at the school with that threat on the second eye and all."

Zelgadis frowned in confusion. "What threat? What are you talking about?"

"You mean you don't know? It's been in all the newspapers!" Lina exclaimed.

"I came here straight from the airport."

"Wow I feel honoured." Lina said sarcastically. "Someone left a note on the display case of the first eye saying the first eye was theirs and the second was next. The note was discovered after the place was closed up and the note wasn't there before it was closed up. Whoever left the note stole the first eye and left a false on in its' place."

"Are they sure it's a fake?"

"No they didn't even know. It wasn't till I got there and examined the thing that I discovered it was a fake."

"They got you to check it over?"

"Well you were out of town."

A lapse of silence fell between the two as they both stood there staring at each other unsure of what to say.

"Why were looking up information on the second eye?" Zelgadis eyed her suspiciously.

"You know it's cold and I'm tired and hungry. I would like to go into my apartment now." Lina went to open her door.

"Not till you give me some answers." Zelgadis put his hand on the door pushing it closed.

"I'm not staying out here, I'm going inside." Lina shoved him away from the door.

"Then I'm coming in too."

"No you won't!" Lina fought Zelgadis as he tried to get past her into her apartment. But both stopped in their tracks as soon as they saw the interior of Lina's home. It had been ransacked… again.

"Not again! I'm getting real sick of this!" Lina exclaimed in frustration.

Zelgadis frowned. "Who the hell would trash your place like this?"

"I used to think it was one of your goons at East Rixx." Lina paused noting the glare from Zelgadis before continuing. "But seeing how the first eye was stolen I'd say that group might be the ones. Damn I wanted to relax and eat. Wait I don't even have food anyway! Well this is really great." Lina kicked a nearby piece of paper. 'It's a good think I brought all my research material with me.'

"You could go out and eat. I know a great place not too far from here." Zelgadis suggested.

Lina snapped her head to look Zelgadis in the eyes. She stared at him like as if he had grown two heads. "Are you asking me out on a date? Have you lost your mind?"

Zelgadis glared at her. "No I haven't lost my mind. You're hungry and so am I. And seeing how you're dodging my questions I figure harassing you over dinner would be good idea. Kill two birds with one stone sort of a thing. As it is I'm not letting you out of my sight till I get some answers."

"Really? But why even go out? Why not order in?" Lina crossed her arms across her chest.

Zelgadis didn't say anything. He grabbed his bag and pulled out a piece of paper and wrote something quick. He deftly held it up for her to see. It read plain and simple, 'Bugs.'

Lina was ready to take offense to this till she realized what he meant. 'Damn they could have had this place bugged before too! Oh well I'll have to go through my apartment with a fine tooth comb later on.' "Well I'm too hungry to think right now. I'll go only if you're buying."

Zelgadis grumbled. "Fine."

Lina led Zelgadis to her car which strangely enough was parked almost two blocks away.

Zelgadis shot her a strange look.

"Well I didn't want anything to happen to my car while I was gone." Lina explained.

"Why would it matter anyway? It's a piece of junk."

Lina glared at him.

"Okay, okay." Zelgadis threw his hands up in defeat.

"So where is this place anyway?" Lina asked while revving up the engine.

"13 Pender Avenue."

"A restaurant that close that I don't know off? Seems a little unlikely."

"It's a family run place and it's a little hidden."

Lina had her doubts that this place was going to be good. She was sure she knew of all the good place near her home. But she chose not to comment.

With Zelgadis' directions Lina pulled up to an old somewhat run down building. From the outside you'd have no idea there was a restaurant inside.

Lina frowned as she got out of the car and looked at the place in front of her. "This is the place?"

Zelgadis nodded.

Lina shrugged and took the clip out of her hair and shook her hair letting the hair toss a bit, now free from the constraints of the hair clip.

Zelgadis caught sight of Lina doing her almost slow motion movie style hair toss. He had to advert his eyes in order not to open stare at her. 'Damn why does she have to be so damn pretty? It would be easier to hate her as a rival if she were ugly.' He thought back to his first meeting with her. He had no idea she was the fiery man-eater from North Rixx that he was warned about. 'I asked her out for drinks. A little out of character for me that's for sure. I'm not the kind of guy that picks up women, especially abroad. But there was something about her…' He mentally sighed. 'No, no she's from North Rixx and she hates your guts Zel. You already know that because she's already told you that. Besides Headmaster Sailune would have a fit.' But he couldn't help but wonder.

Lina let Zelgadis lead as they entered the building and immediately they were greeted by a blast of warm delicious smelling air. She took a deep breath, inhaling all the wonderful smells.

"Oh Zelgadis-dear! So good to see you!" A jolly grey haired woman approached them and pulled Zelgadis into a big hug.

"It's good to see you too Mrs. Kalpatha." Zelgadis said while squirming.

"Nonsense call me Marris. I've known your family for years; you're like family to me. No need to be so formal. In fact call me Aunt Marris."

Zelgadis mumbled something under his breath.

Lina grinned enjoying Zelgadis discomfort.

"And who's this pretty lady?" Marris asked setting her attentions on Lina. "Why can it be? Little Zelly on a date? KARL! Zelgadis is here and he brought a GIRL!" Marris yelled out to her husband.

Suddenly a group of people came out of nowhere.

"Wow she's real pretty!" One commented.

"Zelgadis has good tastes." Another spoke.

This was among the many things said as the whole Kalpatha family all spoke at once.

"ENOUGH!" Marris shushed her family. "Let's leave the lovely couple to their date. Jason set up the table on the northeast corner. Make sure to put the candles out. We want to make it romantic for our dear little Zelgadis."

Zelgadis let his head hang low in embarrassment. He knew there was no use trying to correct Marris. She wouldn't listen anyway. He spied a look at Lina. Her face was flushed in embarrassment. But at the same time she didn't seem to be too bothered by the situation. 'Probably only thinking about the food she's going to eat.' Zelgadis mused dryly. Yes he was very aware of Professor Lina Inverse's infamous appetite. It was one of the reasons why he suggested this particular restaurant. He knew he wasn't going to get her to come with him unless he paid for the food. And this was the only place he knew wouldn't have to pay an arm and a leg for. Though he kinda forgot how bad the Kalpathas could be when it came to his love life or lack there off. 'Well serves me right. I've never brought a girl here before and I can't remember the last time I was on a date.'

"Dears come with me." Marris ushered them to a little table somewhat secluded from the rest of the restaurant. Roses and candles dressed the table making it appear romantic.

Lina inwardly sighed. 'Damn this is the most romantic date I've had and it's not even a date. I'm so pathetic!'

"Dear I didn't catch your name." Marris spoke once the two were seated.

"Lina." Lina answered timidly.

"Ah Lina! What a beautiful name! How did you and our Zelly meet? Was it love at first sight?" Marris gushed.

"Mrs. Kalpatha!" Zelgadis groaned.

"Aunt Marris." Marris corrected.

"Aunt Marris please we came here to eat not be interrogated."

Marris let out a roaring laugh. "Oh dear you're always so dramatic even as a little baby. But I know you must want some time alone with your lady so I will get you two some of our finest wine while you two love birds look through the menu." Marris walked off before Zelgadis could protest.

With Marris gone Zelgadis turned his attentions on Lina, whom had her head buried in her menu. "A-hem." He cleared his throat to get her attention. But Lina either didn't notice or chose to ignore him. "A-HEM!" Zelgadis cleared his throat again but Lina still failed to acknowledge him. He shook his head not impressed and grabbed Lina's menu from her.

"Hey!" Lina yelled in protest.

"Were you planning on ignoring me the whole night?"

"No." Lina grabbed the menu back from him. "I' was just looking at the menu. Unlike you, I haven't been here before."

"So are you going to answer my question?"

"Is the house lamb special any good?"

"Lina." Zelgadis nearly growled at her.

Lina immediately lowered her menu to stare Zelgadis in the face. "So we're on a first name basis now?"

"Fine. Professor Inverse why were you looking up information on the second eye?"

Lina frowned. "The only reason I'm telling you this is because of the theft of the first eye. And you're buying me dinner."

Zelgadis rolled his eyes.

Lina reached for her bag and pulled out a re-sealable bag and dropped it on the table.

Zelgadis blinked in confusion. "What that?" He asked eyeing the crystallized contents of the bag.

"The third eye." Lina said causally.

Zelgadis' eyes went wide. But before he could comment Marris came back with the wine.

"Have you decided on what you want?"

Lina nodded and started listing off most of the items on the menu.

Zelgadis shook his head. 'I'm going to go broke for sure.'

Instead of being surprised on how much Lina was ordering Marris just jotted everything down as if it was completely normal. "What about you Zelgadis?"

"The usual."

"Okay I'll be back with your food shortly. Call if you need any more to drink."

"What do you mean this is the third eye?" Zelgadis exclaimed in a low voice.

"Well here's how it goes." Lina started while putting the 'eye' back in her bag. "I found the temple and went searching through its' underground tomb. But because of Headmaster Gaberieve I had to take his stupid son with me. Once I got my hands on the eye the damned idiot set off one of the booby traps. We barely got out of there alive. But of course the eye got smashed up in the process."

"Okay but that doesn't explain why you were looking up information on the second eye."

"Well Headmaster Gaberieve had gotten a hold of one book on the second eye that I had a chance to read when I got back. And from what I understand of everything I've read, the key to returning the third eye to its' original state is the second eye."

"And now someone wants to steal it."

Lina nodded gloomily.

Zelgadis chuckled slightly. "If only we talked about this to begin with we wouldn't have wasted so much time."

"So what are we going to do now?"

"After we eat we'll go find a way to fix the third eye at East Rixx University."

Lina frowned. "Are you nuts? They won't let me in there."

"They will if you're with me."

Lina shook her head. "You do realize what would happen if we both went there together right? I know I'm not the only one being bugged by my superiors about my involvement with you."

Zelgadis frowned. "I know. They're a bunch of idiots. Who cares if two people are involved from rival schools anyway? They act like it's treason."

Just then Lina's first course came along with some coffee for Zelgadis. Zelgadis couldn't help but be a little frightened by the crazed look in Lina's eyes.


	13. Chapter Twelve

**Ruins Raiders**

Chapter Twelve, Life is a Highway

By Relm

All Zelgadis could do is marvel in disturbed awe as Lina ate and ate consuming the mammoth amount of food in front of her.

"How can you eat all that… and still be so tiny?"

Lina glared at him. She mumbled something at him but he couldn't make it out due to the food in her mouth.

From that point on Zelgadis chose not to say anything more to Lina as she ate. He figured that he couldn't get a clear answer from her till she was done eating. He wondered who would be finished first, him or her.

Near the end of their meal Zelgadis' cell phone rang from his bag. The ring tone, as expected from a guy like him, Fur Elise. He pulled out his phone noting that his call display read out East Rixx University. 'Oh no this can't be good.' "Greywars." He answered emotionlessly.

"_Professor Greywars we have a problem."_

Zelgadis frowned. "What is it Headmaster Sailune?"

Lina looked up from her food and shot Zelgadis a questioning glace.

"_The second eye was stolen."_

"I understand. I'll be there as soon as I can." Zelgadis hung up his phone and placed it back in his bag.

"Well?" Lina prompted him.

"It was stolen."

Lina cursed. She didn't need to be told what 'it' was to know 'it' was the eye. "Now what the hell am I supposed to do with the third eye? I can't fix it without the stupid second eye!"

"Are you going to come with me to the school?"

"You still want me to? I don't think they'll be happy about me being there. In fact I dare say they will blame the theft on me. Though I would never stoop that low." Lina mused.

"I know. But as it is we have a problem and I think it's about time our schools worked together instead of working against each other."

Lina frowned, but she couldn't find any reason to disagree with him. "I guess we'd better finish this up quickly." She said with a scowl. Not that eating quickly was a problem for Lina, it was just the fact that they were going to be skipping dessert.

Zelgadis nodded.

When their meal was over Marris came by with the bill.

Zelgadis looked at the bill with confusion. He had been expecting it to be well over two hundred dollars with all the stuff Lina ordered. Instead the bill read out as $52.75. He cast a questioning glance to Marris. "Mrs. Kalpatha-"

"Aunt Marris." She corrected him again with a stern voice.

"Aunt Marris, why is the bill so low? Half the stuff we ordered isn't even on here!"

Aunt Marris grinned. "Well your Lina is such a healthy eater and this being your first date and all we figured we'd lower your bill. Just this once."

Zelgadis frowned. "But this is going to put you guys out for a lot of money."

"As long as you promise you and Lina will come back another time then it's fine. And don't you dare leave a tip bigger than the bill!" Marris yelled in declaration.

"Okay then. Thanks… Aunt Marris."

"You're welcome sweetie. You two drive safe alright?"

"We will. It was nice meeting you." Lina smiled at Marris.

"The pleasure was all mine dear. Don't be a stranger Zelly. I'll expect to see you around here pretty soon." With that Marris was off to help her other customers.

Zelgadis sat there debating on what to leave. He finally decided on leaving $99.00.

Lina eyed the money Zelgadis put down. "Your Aunt Marris said not to leave a large tip."

"No she said not to leave a tip that exceeds the bill itself. It's still under $52.75."

"Not by much."

Zelgadis shrugged.

Outside the air had gotten colder and Lina shivered as a result. 'Damn why didn't I bring my jacket?' Lina cursed searching through her bag for her car keys.

"Cold?" Zelgadis commented also shivering slightly. He too wasn't wearing a proper jacket.

"Just a little. There! Opened the damn door." Lina hopped into the driver's seat while Zelgadis took the seat next to her.

Lina put her keys into the ignition and gave it a turn. The car shuddered but refused to start. "Oh c'mon don't do this to me now!" Lina pleased with her car as if it was living and could hear/understand her.

"You're sure it's not a piece of junk?" Zelgadis remarked smugly.

"Shut up or you're walking." Lina threatened him. The car choose this time to roar to life. Lina flashed a triumphant smile at Zelgadis.

Zelgadis rolled his eyes in reply.

"Does Headmaster Sailune know that you don't have the third eye?" Lina asked after a few minutes of driving.

"Yeah. I called him in Opaga right after I escaped the jaws of death. He wasn't too pleased with me."

"I still can't believe you went in there! The place had collapsed for pete's sake!" Lina exclaimed.

"If I didn't go in and check and find out for sure about the eye Headmaster Sailune would have had my head."

"Hmmm…" Lina hummed in agreement. She knew all too well about domineering bosses.

Like most experienced drivers Lina routinely checked her mirror spying at the traffic behind her. When doing so she saw yet again the same red car that had been closely following for the last four blocks.

"Professor Greywars, you see that red car behind us? I think it's following us."

Zelgadis looked back and noticed the car she was talking about. "You think so?"

"Well I swear that red car has been right behind us for like the past six blocks."

"Try switching streets." Zelgadis suggested.

Lina did so and made a sharp right hand turn. The red car skidded in the attempt to make a right hand turn. On the next street Lina made a left turn and the red car followed suit. She then did another left and again the car followed.

"You're right it is following us!" Zelgadis exclaimed.

"I'm going to try and lose it."

Zelgadis frowned. "Loose it how? AHHH!" Zelgadis yelled at the sudden increase of speed. "You're not serious are you?"

"Why not? It's not the first time I've tried to lose a car."

"It's not?" Zelgadis asked while grasping his car in terror.

"No."

"Good."

"It's the second."

"WHAT? ARE YOU CRAZY?"

Lina grinned. "What you've never tried to outrun a car before? What are you a fuddy duddy Zel?"

Zelgadis glared at her. "I am not a AHHHH!" Zelgadis screamed as Lina did a really sharp turn. "Are you trying to kill us? You almost hit that bus!"

"It was going too slow."

Lina recklessly drove darting from one lane to the other, turned on streets sharply and drove far too fast. The red car drove equally as dangerous to try and keep up with them. But it seemed that Lina's driving skills were superior and they lost the red car. "Yeah lost it! WEEEEE!" Lina yelled out in glee.

Zelgadis too stressed to comment just tried to get his breathing calmed down.

Because Zelgadis was not one for a conversation after that whole episode Lina decided to turn on the radio and was singing along obnoxiously as they drove along a pretty deserted highway. "Ooooooh... there ain't no load I can't hold, road so rough this I know, I'll be there when the light comes in, tell 'em we're survivors! Life is a highway, I want to ride it, all night long! If you're going my way, I want to drive it, all night long! (yeah) Life is a highway, I want to ride it, all night long, if you're going my way, I want to drive it, all night long!"

Zelgadis rolled his eyes. "Must you do that?"

"Life is a- what you don't sing along ever?"

"Not that loudly."

"I'm not loud." Lina glared at him.

"If you're not being loud I'd hate to see you when you are."

Lina stuck her tongue out at him.

Zelgadis just shook his head and went back to looking at the road. From the corner of his eye he saw a red vehicle coming up close to them. He turned his head to look at it better and his eyes went wide. "Well I'll be damned."

"What?" Lina asked while turning the radio off.

"That red car is back."

"What? No way!" Lina exclaimed. "There's no way it could have found us! I lost it for sure!"

"Unless it knows where we are going." Zelgadis commented.

"What? Then why would it be following us to begin with if it knew where we were going?"

A sudden bump from the back of the car signalled exactly why they were being followed.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me!" Lina exclaimed in frustration as she hit the gas pedal boosting the speed of the car.

But the red car behind them kept up with the speed and rammed Lina's car again.

"Can't this thing go any faster?" Zelgadis yelled out.

"It's not a friggin Ferrari! I'm going as fast as I can!"

"Piece of junk."

"Now is not the time to be insulting my car!" Lina yelled as they were rammed again.

The red car sped up and drove next to Lina and started to hit her from the side.

"AHHHH!" Lina veered her car away from the red car. "Damnit they're trying to run us off the road!" Before the red car could turn into them again Lina suddenly braked causing the red car to go way past them. She put her car in reverse and did a quick two point turn and started driving in the opposite direction. A risky move to do on a highway but besides the two of them it was deserted. "I need a place I can escape to!" Lina scanned the road in hopes of finding some place to turn off from. She located a turn off headed right for it. But before she could reach it the red car caught up to them and rammed them off the road and smack right into a tree.

_- Song Lyrics are from "Life is a Highway" by Tom Cochrane_


	14. Chapter Thirteen

**Ruins Raiders**

**Chapter Thirteen, The Interrogation**

By Relm

Lina gingerly touched her head as she sat herself up. "Professor Greywars?" She looked to the man sitting next to her.

Zelgadis groaned. "Yeah I'm still here."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. You?"

"More or less. What happened to the red car?"

They both listened for sounds but all they heard was the sound of a car driving off.

"Maybe they think we're dead." Lina joked.

"Probably. We should get out of the car and assess the damage." Zelgadis suggested.

Lina nodded.

They both got out of the car and looked at the damage. It wasn't a head on collision with the tree thankfully enough but the one side was banged up. And from the looks of it, it was very doubtful that the engine would work.

"Great my car is totalled!" Lina exclaimed. She pulled out her cell phone and started dialling. "Hello police? I'd like to report an accident."

...

Lina let out a big sigh as she and Zelgadis got out of the police station. "Did you tell them at the school you were going to be awhile?"

"Yeah though I didn't say why."

"Looks like we're taking a cab. I can't believe my car got wrecked!"

Zelgadis rolled his eyes. "What you were expecting it to last?"

Lina glared at him. "Do you want me to kill you?"

"Gee you're moody."

Lina gave him a murderous glance. "My apartment was trashed… again, I was chased and run off the road by someone probably trying to kill us, I crashed into a tree and my car was totalled. So excuse me if I'm not exactly in high spirits." Her voice literately dripped with venom as she narrowed her eyes at him intensifying her glare.

Zelgadis rolled his eyes again.

They hailed a taxi and got in.

The taxicab driver barely said a word as Lina and Zelgadis boarded the car. He asked where they were going and that was it.

Lina gripped the car door tightly as the cab suddenly zoomed forward reaching alarming speeds in mere seconds. 'I hate taxis.' Lina thought. She was a driver not a passenger. True she did sometimes enjoy driving dangerously but that was only if she was the one driving. It really rattled her nerves when it was someone else behind the wheel. Because when you're the passenger you don't have control over what the car does. She spied a look at her fellow passenger and smiled. Zelgadis was a man she was used to seeing keeping cool in any situation. He was always smart, sarcastic, smooth and calm about things even if it was a tense situation. But here she looked on to a very different Zelgadis.

Zelgadis held onto the other car door much like Lina was doing only he gripped it much more tightly that his knuckles turned white. He was very tense and seemed to be clenching his teeth.

'Was that how he looked when I was trying to outrun that red car?' Lina wondered while giving him the once over. Though his clothing was dirty with sand and blood he still seemed to carry that clean dignified air about him. His jacket was fairly thin and clung to his upper arms giving a sneak peak of the biceps hidden amongst the cloth. Lina found herself checking him admiring his body's many attractive points. It wasn't till she got his legs that she realized what she was doing. 'What the hell is wrong with me? This is the most annoying guy in the universe but I can't stop drooling over him. You'd think I'd never been near a hunky man before. Damn you why do you have to be so pretty?' Lina mentally cursed with a faint blush tinting her checks.

Zelgadis shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He could feel her scrutinizing stare on him even though he looked forward and avoided looking at her. 'Why is she staring at me like that?' Zelgadis wondered. A small voice in the back of his head suggested that maybe she was checking him out. Zelgadis mentally shook his head at the voice. 'No way she'd be doing that. Not after everything I've done to her.'

A sudden sharp turn by the car sent Lina practically crashing into Zelgadis' lap. Her seatbelt that was supposed to keep her in place unlocked allowing her body to shift sidewise. "What the hell?" Lina cried out in protest. "This seatbelt is broken!" Lina yelled at the taxi driver.

The cab driver either didn't hear her or ignored her.

Lina huffed and went to regain her composure when she noticed just where she was sitting. No longer was she sitting on her side of the car. Instead she was sitting in Zelgadis' lap and strangely enough his arms had found their way around her waist.

Both professors starred at each other with wide eyes. "I um…" Both stammered.

Lina scampered off his lap and sat herself in the middle seat checking to see if that seatbelt was better than the other one. It seemed to be better and Lina buckled up and starred at the opposite direction of Zelgadis even though she was sitting right next to him.

The rest of the cab ride was quiet and uneventful.

...

The taxi driver dropped Lina and Zelgadis off in front of East Rixx University. Zelgadis being the gentleman that he was paid the driver.

Lina let out a huge sigh. This was something she dreaded. She could just hear the accusations. Given her history with the school she was pretty sure she was going to be East Rixx's prime suspect.

Zelgadis noted how tense Lina seemed to be. 'Well she is walking into enemy territory after all so it's not strange that she's feeling uneasy.' Zelgadis thought glumly.

The one of the school security guards came towards them with intensions of kicking Lina off the property when Zelgadis waved his hand motioning for him not to.

"You can't be serious Professor Greywars." The guard protested.

"She is here as my guest." Zelgadis insisted.

"But I have orders to keep any non-school personnel off the premises. And there were special orders concerning Professor Inverse."

"I don't care. I've brought her here to help our school's current situation. So if you don't mind we are late seeing the Headmaster." Zelgadis pushed past the guard and started walking down the halls.

"So the rumour is true…" The guard muttered.

Zelgadis snapped his head back. "What did you say?"

"The rumour about you and Professor Inverse, it's true isn't it? That you two are romantically involved with each other."

Both Zelgadis and Lina violently shook their heads. "No we're not!" Both answered in gruff manners.

"Sorry my mistake." The guard smiled sheepishly heading back to his patrols.

Both Lina and Zelgadis sweatdropped.

The walk through the halls of the school was quiet. Neither Lina nor Zelgadis felt compelled to speak. Both of their minds were occupied with the mental preparations for the 'battle' yet to come.

'I'm surprised this place isn't swarming with cops. Guess they didn't tell the police yet.' Lina mused.

Zelgadis pulled out his keys and opened the door leading to the display. He had been warned that it was going to be locked.

Four heads collectively turned to the new comers to the room.

"Professor Greywars I'm glad that y-" Headmaster Sailune started to say when Zelgadis and Lina entered but stopped mid sentence when his eyes fell on Lina. "Why is 'she' here?" Headmaster Sailune hissed glaring at Zelgadis.

"Let me see the display." Zelgadis requested while pushing past everyone to view the glass case. He chose to ignore the Headmaster's question.

"Professor Greywars why did you bring her here? She's probably the one that stole the eye!" A girl shorter than Lina with shoulder length hair and blue eyes piped up.

Lina openly stared at the girl. She didn't like being accused of crimes she didn't commit. But that wasn't why Lina continued to stare at her. The girl was strangely familiar. "Who are you? I sear you look familiar." Lina narrowed her eyes at the girl.

The girl looked very nervous and uneasy. "You shouldn't know me…" She trailed off.

"Professor Inverse to what do we have this honour of your presence?" Xellos said in a sweetened voice.

Lina regarded this one with suspicion. She didn't like the look of his smile. There was something eerie about it. "Professor Greywars invited me along."

The four gasped in shock.

"Professor Greywars! What is the meaning of this?" Headmaster Sailune demanded.

Zelgadis seemed oblivious to this whole scene. He instead examined the glass case. To an untrained eye the case contained what it was supposed to, the second eye. But Zelgadis was very aware that the 'eye' was a fake. "Who figured out this is a fake?"

"I did." Xellos spoke up. "After the theft of the first eye I decided to check on the second eye. And it was then that I noticed it wasn't the second eye in the case, but a very clever fake."

"Hmmm…" Zelgadis hummed in thought.

"Professor Greywars are you going to answer my question? Why did you bring Professor Inverse here?" Headmaster Sailune asked again.

"Because this involves her as much as it does us. And quite frankly I don't see why you should be so concerned with a stupid school rivalry, especially since both the first and second eyes were stolen."

"She probably stole them." The fourth person in the room mumbled. The woman seemed to resemble the shorter girl in the fact that her hair was black and eyes blue and they shared certain facial features. But this lady was much taller, with fairly longer hair and a chest that would make a porn star envious.

"Now you listen here Ms. Perky Chesterfield*-"

"Professor Inverse did not steal the eyes. In fact the people who did steal them tried to kill her by running her off the road."

"Yeah and my home was ransacked several times!" Lina added.

"You have proof?" The short one retorted.

"No I don't-"

"Then how do you know then? She probably stole the two eyes because she was bitter she couldn't find the third eye."

"I found the third eye thank you very much!" Lina huffed.

"Really then why wasn't it announced in the papers?" The short one challenged Lina.

"Oh you want to know why? I'll tell you why!" Lina fished in her bad and pulled out the reseal able bag with the third eye and placed it in plain view. "My assistant is an idiot that's why!"

Everyone sans Zelgadis and Lina looked at the crystallized dust of the eye with silence and confusion.

"What is that?"

"That's the third eye." Zelgadis responded dryly.

"How?"

"I told you my assistant is an idiot." Lina crossed her arms across her chest.

There was still mass confusion on the room.

"Her assistant set off a trap in the temple and the eye was reduced to dust." Zelgadis explained. "And it seems from Professor Inverse's research that the key to fixing the third eye has to do with the second eye."

"But that doesn't mean she couldn't have stolen the other two eyes. She could have stolen the second eye at the part and replaced it with the fake!" The short one insisted.

"Amelia! Stop it. You have no right to yell out accusations when you have no proof." Zelgadis chided. Even he was starting to get annoyed with her constant yapping.

Lina's eyes opened wide. "Amelia? Now I know who you are! You're my little brother's ex-girlfriend! You broke his heart you little-"

"Professor Inverse." Zelgadis glared at Lina.

Lina rolled her eyes. "Fine I'll play nice."

"Have you called the police yet to report the theft?" Zelgadis asked Headmaster Sailune.

"No not yet. We wanted to know when was the last time you saw the eye."

"Hmm…." Zelgadis stroked his chin in thought. "It would have to be the night of the party. So unless Professor Inverse broke into the school since then she didn't take the eye."

"You're defending her because you two are dating aren't you?" The tall woman glared at Zelgadis and then glared at Lina.

"No I'm not!" Both Lina and Zelgadis yelled at the same time.

_* That is a porn name taken the whole idea of taking the name of your pet and the street you live on and putting them together. _


	15. Chapter Fourteen

**Ruins Raiders**

**Chapter Fourteen, The Odd Couple**

By Relm

"Really? Then perhaps you may want to shed some light as to why you two are together today?" Xellos asked grinning like a cat.

Lina and Zelgadis both looked at each other with questioning looks. They were aware that they couldn't answer honestly. But neither knew what story to go with.

"I was returning her book. You remember the one that she lent us a couple weeks ago?"

"Yeah." Lina agreed nodding her head over enthusiastically. "You called about the eye while he was with me so he asked me to come along."

Four sets of eyes examined Lina and Zelgadis carefully. It was obvious to them that there was more to the story then what they were saying.

"And you just agreed like that?" Headmaster Sailune asked Lina.

Lina frowned. "Of course not. I was pretty sure he was trying to pull something. But then he wouldn't leave me alone. He was really pissy that I got the third eye first. In fact he-"

"Ahem." Zelgadis cleared his throat. "I think we should call the police now so that we can examine the fake. I'm pretty sure that I see something under the forgery."

Lina and everyone else crowed around the case. If you looked carefully enough a small corner of a scrap of paper appeared to be poking out from under the eye.

"Probably another calling card from our robber." Lina commented.

"Naga-sweety, could you go call the police?" Headmaster Sailune asked the tall brunette.

"Okay Daddy."

Lina's eyes darted back and forth between Naga and Headmaster Sailune. "You two don't even look related! I'm assuming Amelia is also your daughter too."

Amelia and Headmaster Sailune nodded.

...

"Well here you are Sir." One of the officers handed the reseal able bag containing a small white card to Headmaster Sailune.

"So that was under the fake?" Headmaster Sailune asked.

The officer nodded. "Yes it was Sir."

"Hmmm…"

Lina, Zelgadis, Xellos and Amelia crowed around Headmaster Sailune in hopes to see what the thief had left behind.

"What does it say?" Zelgadis asked.

" 'Death to those who hide the third eye.' " Headmaster Sailune read out loud.

"Oh that's just great. Now I'm marked for death. Can this day any better?" Lina muttered.

"I wouldn't say that. Something worse just might happen." Zelgadis chided.

"We got lots of finger prints on the case but chances are most of those will be people who visited the school museum." An officer reported to them.

"And the card?"

"Not a single print. We're going to do a check on the ink and the paper but I'm pretty sure it's going to come up as generic stationary supplies. The fake is also clean of prints. But I can tell you this. Whoever stole your relic had a key, there's no evidence of forced entry on the case." The officer summarized much to everyone's dissatisfaction.

"Look like you're going to have to interrogate your staff." Lina half joked to Headmaster Sailune.

"What are you going to do Professor Inverse?" Xellos turned to Lina with his ever-present grin of his.

"Huh?" Lina gave him a blank stare.

"Well you know what the card said. Your life is in danger."

Lina rolled her eyes. "Oh please. My life is always in danger. In fact I-"

"Professor Inverse will be staying with me." Zelgadis announced flatly.

"WHAT?" Headmaster Sailune, Xellos, Amelia and even Lina yelled at once.

"Excuse me, I don't remember deciding on staying with you!" Lina hissed in an angry tone.

"You can't stay at your place. What if the guys who ransacked your apartment comes back when you're there? You could get yourself killed."

"I'll stay at Sylphiel's home."

"Chances are they have info on everyone you work and associate with."

"Then I'll go to a hotel." She was starting to get really annoyed with his constant answers to everything.

"They're probably spying on you. And who's to say they don't have sources in the hotels around here?"

"What the hell makes your place any safer?" Lina snapped at him.

"I'm your arch nemesis. You'd have to be crazy to stay with me so-"

"They'll never suspect it." Lina finished off. 'Damn he's right.' "But they have to be spying on me now. They'd still find me."

"Not if we're careful."

"Don't you think they'd have your place on file?"

"We won't be staying at my home. My cousin is studying abroad and is out of the country for a couple years. He's already given me permission to use his place whenever I want. In a way I'm house-sitting. He wants me to make it looks like someone is still living there."

"With all due respect Professor Greywars I think this is a terrible idea!" Amelia insisted.

"We don't have much of a choice Amelia. We're not going to be able to get back the second eye if something happens to Professor Inverse."

"But you don't have to protect her. Her life being in danger isn't your problem."

"Amelia!" Headmaster Sailune stepped into the conversation. "I cannot believe you would say such a thing! We cannot turn our backs on someone who needs help just because we have bad relations. People are people and all deserving of help when they need it. To ignore such please are both unjust and immoral." Headmaster Sailune lectured his youngest daughter.

"I know Daddy. But does it have to be Professor Greywars? Why can't it be someone else?"

"Three reasons. They must know mine and Professor Inverse's history of rivalry. So it's more unlikely that she could stay with me then with some stranger from our staff. Two, the officer said whoever stole the eye had a key meaning they work here. We don't know who it could be. And I don't know about you but I don't feel confident about leaving the owner of the third eye with someone who may want to kill her. Thirdly she and I are both very educated researchers. We'd be more likely to come up with a solution quicker if we put our heads together." Zelgadis explained.

Amelia frowned. "What about a police safe house? Wouldn't that be better?"

"Not when it comes to Professor Inverse I'm afraid." An officer interjected. "We have no real proof that this person or persons is going to target Professor Inverse directly. And given Professor Inverse's profession she always seems to attract crimes of vandalism. Why she's reported so many break ins that some of the guys down at the station have a code for an Inverse break in. There's not enough evidence to have Professor Inverse placed in a safe house."

Amelia sighed in defeat. There was no way she could prevent Lina from staying with Zelgadis.

Zelgadis was thankful that the officer stepped in when he did. Amelia could be so difficult and jealous at times. He was aware of her crush on him (not to mention Naga's crush on him too). It was very tiresome dealing with the pair at times. Especially when they fought over him like he was a possession. 'I'm not even interested in either of them.' Zelgadis mentally mused.

_But you are interested in Lina._ A small voice said from the back of Zelgadis' head.

He frowned and his gaze fell on the redheaded professor.

_Admit it. The one reason why you're being so insistent about her staying with you is because you want to spend more time with her alone._

Instead of responding to the little voice Zelgadis chose to ignore it. The reasons being that he didn't have a good retort back and he didn't want to start a crazy mental argument with himself.

_Thought so._

'Oh shut up!'

"I suppose I'd better call Sylphiel and get her to pack me a bag." Lina thought out loud.

"Make sure that she doesn't go alone just to be on the safe side." Zelgadis suggested.

"Yeah that's probably a good idea. I'll get Gourry to go with her. He'd follow her anywhere. Even if it's dangerous." Lina pulled out her cell phone and started dialling. "Sylphiel? Hi it's me. Sorry to call so late but I have a favour to ask you…"

...

Gourry sighed contently as he drifted off into dreamland in the comforts of his bed.

_His dream started out with a world make completely of food. He danced merrily snacking on the various things he could eat. _

"_Hello Gourry-dear." _

_Gourry turned around to see Sylphiel wearing a yellow sundress and a matching yellow sunhat holding a basket in her hands. A picnic basket. _

"_Sylphiel is that what I think it is?" _

"_Why yes I made all your favourites." She flashed him a smile. "You are going to join be for lunch aren't you?" She made a pouty face while tracing her finger along his collar bone. _

_Gourry felt his knees go weak. "I-I of course I will." _

_Sylphiel smiled at him again and leaned forward to kiss him- _

_[RING RING!]_

Gourry's head snapped up at the sound of his phone. "Oh darn! And that was a good dream too!" Gourry whined while reaching for the phone. "Hello?" He answered.

"_Hello Mister Gourry? I'm sorry did I wake you?"_ Sylphiel's apologetic voice emerged from the receiver.

Gourry sat himself up. "Mis-ss Sylphiel? Oh no you didn't wake me. Not at all!" Gourry mentally panicked. He has had the biggest crush on Sylphiel ever since he met her a few years ago. Not only was she beautiful and sweet she was also a great cook. Though Gourry was smitten with her he had never been able to tell her. He always got all tongue twisted when she was around. And the mere fact that she knew his phone number and was calling him threw him for a loop.

"_Good. Because I need a favour. Miss Lina seems to have gotten herself into a tight situation but she didn't specify on what exactly. Though she can't go back to her apartment and she needs me to pack some clothing and such for her. But she's advised me not to go alone. There could be thugs lurking around her home."_

"I'll pick you up in ten minutes." Gourry announced.

"_Great! Thanks Mister Gourry! You're the greatest." _

A goofy grin creped onto Gourry's lips. "It's nothing."

"_Well I'd better get ready. Bye Mister Gourry."_

"Bye Miss Sylphiel." Gourry hung up the phone in happy daze. "I'm going to see Miss Sylphiel!" Gourry cheered. He looked around his messy room and realized something. "Where are my car keys?"

...

Sylphiel and Gourry waited patiently on the corner of Forbs and Browns for Lina to pick up the bags Sylphiel packed. They had already visited Lina's apartment to pack her stuff. Both Gourry and Sylphiel had the feeling that they were being watched while they were in Lina's home but they had no problems while they were there.

Sylphiel frowned as she waited. Lina hadn't exactly explained what was going on so all Sylphiel could do was guess. She assumed that Lina's life was probably in danger and that was why everything had to be done so secretively and at so late in the evening. 'I hope everything is alright with Miss Lina.'

A sleek black jaguar turned on Windel street and drove down Forbs. It pulled up right in front of Gourry and Sylphiel.

Gourry had his hand hovering over his concealed weapon knowing very well that he might need to use it.

Instead of a hoodlum coming out of the car Lina popped her head out from the passenger seat. "Hi guys."

Both Sylphiel and Gourry exhaled. Neither was even aware that they had been holding their breaths.

"Miss Lina what's going on?" Sylphiel exclaimed in concern.

"I'm sorry but the less you know the better. Do you have my stuff?"

Sylphiel held out the bags for Lina to see. "Yes. And your place is a mess again. But I guess you already know that."

"Yeah. Did you guys have any trouble?"

Both Sylphiel and Gourry shook their heads.

"Good. Thanks guys. I'll see you later." Lina grabbed the luggage and went back into the car. The car drove off leaving Gourry and Sylphiel standing there.

"Did you see who the driver was?" Sylphiel asked Gourry.

Gourry shook his head.

"Hmm… I wonder who it was.

...

Zelgadis pulled the car up to a very plain and standard apartment building. He was driving Xellos' car just so that it would be harder to follow then Zelgadis' grey hatch-back. Though Xellos' black jaguar was anything but inconspicuous.

Lina lugged her bags out of the car noting just how heavy they were. 'What the hell did she put in here? An entire football team? This is heavy!' Lina wondered as she followed Zelgadis into the building. 'Well I don't think I'll ask her to pack for me again.'

The first thing Zelgadis did once he got inside the apartment suite was head straight to the shower. This wasn't surprising considering he hadn't had the chance to take one since coming back from the desert.

Lina didn't comment on Zelgadis' lack of conversation. Had she had his type of day she'd probably would have done the same thing. 'Guess he'll show me around the place later on.' Lina mused while taking in her surroundings. Bare white walls, brown furniture, grey carpet and a TV stand with a TV greeted her in the living room. 'Typical for a guy I guess.' She looked towards the dining room/kitchen and didn't find much of a difference in the décor. 'Well may as well get to work.' Lina decided as she set her stuff down and put her work on the table.

...

Zelgadis let out a deep contented sigh. He felt a million times more refreshed after his shower. 'That was just what I needed. Trudging around the desert sure makes you all dirty.' He grabbed a towel and dried off. He was going to go and change when he noticed something. In his hurry to take his shower he had forgotten to take his change of clothing in with him. All that remained in the bathroom were the clothes he had just been wearing. 'And I my bag is outside. Great.'

Zelgadis tried to secure the towel around his waist but that proved to be difficult because it wasn't a really big towel to begin with. He ended up having to hold the towel at one end to keep him covered. He poked his head out the door surveying his surroundings. He didn't see any signs of Lina. 'Maybe she went to bed already.' Zelgadis thought hopefully.

With no other choice Zelgadis walked out into the living room to grab his stuff hearing a very distinctively female gasp behind him. He spun around to see Lina staring at him with an open mouth.

Lina couldn't help but gawk at the nearly naked man in front of her. 'Too bad that towel isn't smaller.' Lina thought then blushed when she realized what she was thinking.

Zelgadis' blush matched hers and he ran back to the bathroom at the speed of light.

Lina busted into a fit of giggles once he was back in the bathroom.


	16. Chapter Fifteen

_Author's Notes: I almost forgot to post this. With my sleep schedule so disturbed I'm forgetting what day it is. There was something nagging me at the back of mind saying 'isn't there something you're supposed to be doing right now? Oh right! Ruins Raiders!' Anyway I'm pretty sure this was the very last part of this fic that was on RSBI and the internet in general._

**Ruins Raiders**

Chapter Fifteen, Static

By Relm

Zelgadis came out of the shower dressed in a tee-shirt and pyjama pants. He had a very embarrassed grin on his face. "Hi." He greeted Lina.

"Hi." Lina smiled at him and gave him a little wave.

"So… whatcha doing?" Zelgadis sat down next to her.

"Just looking over my research. Did you enjoy your shower?" Lina just barely contained her snicker.

"I'm very tired, I haven't had sleep in god knows how many hours and I'm not thinking clearly. So I forgot about my clothes." Zelgadis answered with a tinge of annoyance in his voice.

"Yeah I'll say." Lina snickered with a very vivid picture of a certain professor lacking certain articles of clothing in her mind. 'What the hell am I doing? I'm acting like a hormone crazed teenager! Gotta stop doing this. I have to stay with this guy for crying out loud.' Lina mentally scolded herself. "So are you going to show me around?"

"Sure." Zelgadis was glad that she wasn't going to pursue discussing the shower incident. "Well you've already seen the kitchen and the living room." He led her to the hall. "This is the bathroom but you already know that." Zelgadis opened the door for Lina to view.

Lina had half expected to see it in a mess after Zelgadis toke his shower. But instead it was neat and tidy with everything in its' proper place. 'Oh great I'm rooming with a neat freak. This is going to be real fun.' Lina thought glumly. Keeping things clean and orderly was always a problem for her. 'But on the bright side at least he'll be fun to bug.'

Zelgadis led her to the last two doors down the hall. He opened both for Lina to see. "These are the master bedroom and the guest room."

"Guestroom? If he was living alone why get a two bedroom? A one bedroom would have been more practical." Lina mused out loud.

"Yes well he was engaged at the time he bought the place. He had no idea she was cheating on him."

"Ouch."

"Anyway I'll leave it up to you as to which room you want to use." Zelgadis said figuring that Lina would choose the bigger room.

"I'll take the guestroom then." Lina went and hulled her bags into the smaller room.

Zelgadis raised an eyebrow. "You can take the bigger room you know. I don't care."

Lina shrugged. "This is your cousin's place, not a relative of mine. And I don't really need a big room, I don't have much with me. As long as it has a bed I don't care."

"Fine suit yourself." Zelgadis walked back to the living room.

Lina unpacked her bags on the bed seeing for the first time what Sylphiel decided to pack for her. And the contents shocked Lina somewhat. Sylphiel had packed a lot of Lina's tighter fitting clothing, some revealing. She also packed make up, perfume as well normal bathroom and hair stuff. The nightwear Sylphiel packed was Lina's more alluring outfits. Of course Sylphiel had also packed some normal stuff too but it was obvious on the theme. 'What the hell is she thinking? That I'm going to seduce him?' Lina shook her head with her checks turning red.

Lina put her stuff away and gathered her toiletries and such and ventured into the hall. She poked her head out to get a look at Zelgadis. As expected he was hard at work going over his research and hers. "Hey I'm going to take a shower, okay?"

"Alright." Zelgadis answered without even looking up.

...

Lina towelled off and got dressed. She used the towel to wipe off the fog from the mirror. She picked up a comb and worked through her tangled hair.

With her hair free of knots Lina tied it back with a hair elastic.

Lina's watch read 2 am. 'I wonder if he'd still working. Oh well one way to find out.' Lina walked out into the dining room.

Zelgadis was still at the table working as expected. Only for some strange reason he lacked the shirt he was wearing before. Alerted by the noise he looked up. He saw Lina dressed in a pair of shorts that were a tad short in length and an oversized buttoned long sleeve pyjama shirt that was almost as long as the shorts. He half expected a snide remark from her but she remained silent. The faint flush in her cheeks confused him till he remembered he wasn't wearing his shirt. "Oh I um… spilled ink on my shirt." He explained.

"And you only have one?"

Zelgadis frowned. "My stuff is in my room. And I was too involved in what I was doing that I didn't bother to get another one. But if it bothers you that much I can go get another shirt."

Lina shook her head. "No I don't care." She sat down in a chair next to him trying not to look at him directly.

Zelgadis' eyes fell on Lina legs. The shorts of hers were hiked up revealing more than Zelgadis was comfortable with. Trying not to stair proved difficult.

Lina noticed his line of sight and pulled her shorts back down. She had half a mind to smack him but she refrained from doing so. 'Gee this isn't much better than those flimsy nightgowns Sylphiel packed. Hmmm… why do I have those things anyway? I never wear them.' Lina thought to herself. "So how long are you going to stay up? Don't you have to teach class tomorrow?"

"Xellos is going to cover for me while we deal with this problem."

"That Xellos guy gives me the creeps." Lina shivered at the thought of Xellos and his unnatural smile.

Zelgadis let out a chuckle. "Yeah he has that effect on people. He's also pretty annoying."

"I'll bet. So Professor Greywars-"

"You know I think maybe we should be on a first name basis. Seeing on how we're going to be stuck here together for a while." Zelgadis suggested cutting her off.

"Okay then Zel." Lina put an emphases on his name with a sweetened tone.

Zelgadis frowned. 'Oh well as long as she's not calling me Zelly then I guess I'll be fine with Zel.'

"Made any breakthroughs yet?"

Zelgadis shook his head. "I've cross referenced the information we've both gathered about the eyes and I didn't come up with anything really new. Yes it does seem that you can repair either eye with the second eye. Each eye supposedly has a special property to it."

"Yeah and the third eye has something to do with a great power. But according to the legends you need have all three eyes in one location to really tap into their power. The third eye alone can provide some but I'll bet that our thieves are after the big guns." Lina let out a sigh. "If all three eyes were to fall in the hands of someone evil the results could be deadly."

"It's for reasons like that that the three eyes were separated and hidden in different corners of the world."

"Finding the eyes is one thing, but knowing how to use them in conjunction with each other is another. These people must be pretty resourceful to know so much about the eyes."

"Well I wouldn't doubt it. Not if they've got people in the museum and the school."

"Does the headmaster have any idea who or whom it could be?"

Zelgadis shook his head. "Nope. But if I know him he'll go through the school's faculty with a fine tooth comb until he finds the guilty party. You know there are probably spies in your school too."

Lina frowned. "Yeah I should probably tell Headmaster Gaberieve about at this. Oh well I'll give him a call sometime tomorrow." Lina shrugged it off nothing thinking much of the problem she was going to have the next day. 'I can just hear him yelling… What fun that is going to be.'

Zelgadis' eyes widened. "You mean to say that he knows nothing of what happened today?"

"Well he knows I went to the museum I think since Sylphiel would have had to run that by him to get the plane tickets. But that's all."

"What? You didn't call him and tell him about getting almost killed on the road? Or that the second eye was stolen? Or that someone has threatened to kill you? Or that you're staying with your school's arch rival's lead history professor? He knows none of this at all?"

"What you think I'd just go out and tell him all that? Obviously you've never met Headmaster Gaberieve. You're kinda spoiled with Headmaster Sailune he's an angel compared to my boss."

Zelgadis' glared at Lina. "So you're not going to tell him anything till tomorrow?"

"It's after 2 am if I called him right now he'd kill me for waking him up for sure. I'll talk to him tomorrow afternoon or evening or whenever. Or I could even get Sylphiel to tell for me." Lina thought out loud. "Nah he'd still call and yell at me. Though I could just check my phone and not answer the calls from the school. No I can't do that, that could also be Sylphiel calling me." Lina said more to herself than to Zelgadis.

"It's really after 2?"

Lina nodded.

"I didn't realize it was so late. I really do lose track of time when I work."

"Wanna continue this tomorrow? We'd probably be able to think more clearly after some sleep."

"Yeah we'd probably just miss important details if we keep on going like this."

"Alright then goodnight Zel."

"Goodnight Lina."

...

Lina woke up smelling a vast array of breakfast goodies. "Huh? Mmmm… food. But whose cooking?" Lina got out of bed and stumbled out the door and into the hall. 'Okay wake up Lina. Or you're going to trip and fall.' Lina mentally scolded herself.

"Well you're finally awake." Zelgadis commented from the kitchen.

"And you're cooking." Lina answered back frowning.

"Is it strange to you for a guy to cook?"

"No. In fact I love a guy who can cook. But most guys can't or at least the guys I see everyday." Lina chuckled as she went to snatch a piece of bacon which Zelgadis in turn swatted her hand. "Ouch!"

"No sneaking food. Wait till all the food is ready."

"Fine." Lina pouted making a face at him.

"Acting cutesy isn't going to get your way."

Lina stuck her tongue out at him. "Okay but you'd better not take too long or things might get ugly."

"I'm making you breakfast and you're giving me orders?" Zelgadis glared at her.

"Gee you're really grumpy in the morning." Lina got some orange juice from the fridge and poured herself a glass.

"Do you want breakfast or not?"

"Touchy."

Zelgadis shook his head. "This is payback from yesterday night isn't it?"

"Yup." Lina sat down at the table with the newspaper. She pulled the hair elastic out of her hair letting her curls fall freely around her shoulders in a wild mass. "There's nothing in the paper about the second eye. I guess Headmaster Sailune didn't say anything to the press yet. Everything that's in here is about the first eye."

"Well I'm pretty sure that Headmaster Sailune is going to want to keep theft of the second eye a secret for as long as he can."

"Yeah but people are going to figure it out sooner or later. The second eye's exhibit going under maintenance not too long after the first eye gets stolen? Either they're going to think your school is paranoid that your eye is going to get stolen or it already was."

Zelgadis frowned. "Yeah I know." Zelgadis set the table up and started dishing out the food.

"It's ready?" Lina squealed in delight.

"Yes." Zelgadis answered. But it didn't matter if he had said no because she was already eating.

Lina ate her food in a frenzy. She had no intensions of stopping. But a cell phone ring put an end to that.

"Is that your phone?"

Lina mumbled an inaudible answer.

"That isn't my phone so it must be yours."

Again Lina didn't answer with something understandable.

"C'mon go answer your phone!" Zelgadis ordered.

Lina grumbled and got up to go get her phone from her bag. "Hello?" She answered in an angry voice.

"_Professor Inverse where the hell are you?"_

"Oh hi Headmaster Gaberieve. How are you?"

"_Don't hi how are you to me missy! I've been calling your house for hours! And then I talk to Miss Nels Rada and she tells be about the errand you had her run."_ His voice was very edgy and loud. It was obvious even to a person who didn't know him that Headmaster Gaberieve wasn't happy.

"An errand? Which one would that be?"

"_Don't play dumb with me Inverse. You had her pack a bag for you and you told her to take my son with her just to be safe. What the hell kind of trouble are you in?"_

"You know the first eye was stolen, well yesterday the second one was too."

"_I don't remember reading that in the papers. How is it that you know?"_

"Well… let's just say I've got an inside source in our rival school. It seems like it's the same group that stole both eyes. So like the first eye there was a note left in the case. This one said that anyone who hides the third eye will die."

"_So someone is planning to kill you? But we didn't announce we even had the third eye!"_

"Yeah well I guess this mysterious group has got insiders in our school like the others. Both thefts seemed to be inside jobs. I probably wouldn't take the threat so seriously if someone didn't try and run me off the highway and into a tree last night."

"_This is serious. Professor Inverse I'm going to arrange a place for you to stay-"_

"Don't worry about me. I've got a safe place to stay."

"_What? Who are you staying with?"_

"A friend."

"_If they've got insiders in our school they'll know all your friends! That's not safe at all!"_

"Alright he's not my friend. I hate the guy."

"_He? Who the hell is it Professor Inverse? You're not with that Professor Greywars from East Rixx are you?"_

"I'm sorry what did you say Headmaster Gaberieve? You're cutting out." Lina lied.

"_You are with him! So you are dating him!"_

"Sorry Headmaster Gaberieve I can't hear a single word you're saying. My phone must be busted. I'll call you later on, bye." Lina quickly hung up the phone. 'I think I'm going to have to turn my phone off for a little while.' She thought sheepishly.


	17. Chapter Sixteen

_Author's Notes: This is I believe the very first part of this fic post RSBI death. I wrote this part while I was at work supposed to be working actually (I know I'm bad). I remember when I was writing Ruins Raiders before RSBI died I got stuck. It's funny how some time away from something can breathe new life into it. I know now where I'm going with this fic. I didn't before. _

**Ruins Raiders**

Chapter Sixteen, Killing Time

By Relm

Lina laughed nervously after she hung up her phone.

"So you didn't tell him you're staying with me huh?" Zelgadis raised his eyebrow while drinking his coffee.

"Like I said you have it easy with your headmaster. Mine's a nightmare."

"Won't he get angrier when he finds out later?"

"If I play things right he won't find out at all. Which would be good seeing how I'm already on thin ice with him after that party incident." Lina blushed slightly while avoiding Zelgadis gaze.

Zelgadis didn't notice as he was trying to avoid looking Lina in the eyes. Even though the whole night have been frustrating and embarrassing to him, it was by the far the best time he had at one of those parties. Of course the backlash the next day had been brutal. 'I'm sure they whole school thinks I'm a traitor.' "So what is our game plan?"

Lina frowned. "I've been thinking that over all last night when I was trying to sleep. Whoever is behind all this must have followed me to at least the country where the temple with the eye was. They know I have the eye because they wouldn't have ransacked my place. Unless it's just an unhappy coincidence."

"Had you found anything else recently that someone would want?"

"Nothing the public doesn't already know about. Everything is displayed so they should have any reason to break into my place."

"Or run you off the road." Zelgadis added.

"Yeah. And we can't fix the third eye unless we have the second eye. And we can't get the second eye unless we can catch who stole it. The only thing I can think of is to flush the thieves out."

"How so?"

"My school could announce that we have the third eye, lay a trap and see if anyone takes the bait."

"Word of mouth alone isn't good enough bait." Zelgadis shovelled a big amount of food into his mouth. With Lina talking she was distracted enough that she had stopped eating. If he didn't eat now he probably wasn't going to get any food. Lina would be likely to eat it all. "You need something else too." Zelgadis said after swallowing.

"Yeah I know. We'd need a fake eye to display. And since these guys know the eyes well they would probably be able to spot a fake." Lina's face was grim.

"Who else saw the eye besides you, before it turned to dust?"

"Just Gourry. Why?" Lina asked while frowning.

"Well the only record of the appearance of the third eye in history is a drawing in a few old books and wall paintings. You are one of the few people whom are living who has seen what it looks like. If we made a fake they might not be able to tell the difference. Of course we would need to know how to make a convincing fake."

"Not a problem." Lina pulled out a piece of paper and a pen from her bag and started to draw. She drew the eye trying to remember any distinctive details. She was very throughout and when she finished she had created a masterpiece. "There. That's the best I can do from memory."

Zelgadis' mouth hung open in shock. "Did you really study the eye before it broke?"

"Nope. Just got a quick glimpse. I know it sucks."

Zelgadis sweatdropped. 'What's a good picture look like...?'

Lina whipped out her phone, took a picture and sent it to Sylphiel. Immediately afterwards Lina dialled Sylphiel.

"_Hello?"_

"Hey Sylphiel it's me. I sent you a pic on your phone. Could you do me a favour and use that picture as a guide and do some art magic for me? I need you to do your best and make a scale replica of the third eye. And don't tell anyone what you're doing. It needs to be super secret."

"_Okay...? What colour was the lines inside the eye?"_

"Dark blue with a hint of green."

"_Alright I think I can make something that will work. You want this to look convincing so you'll fool those thieves right?"_

"That's the plan. Remember super secret. We don't know who we can trust."

"_Okay, I'll do my best. But this is going to take at least a day to do."_

"Just call me when you're finished. Thanks Sylphiel."

"_You're welcome."_

"Do you think she can make a convincingly enough fake?" Zelgadis asked once Lina hung up the phone.

"She's the best. Sylphiel is an art major as well as art history and ancient studies. She also knows a lot about the eyes, she did her thesis on the first eye of Trinibee." Lina stated very proudly. And she was proud to have Sylphiel on her staff. Not that her last teaching assistant wasn't bad per say, Martina did leave some things to be desired.

"Are you sure she isn't the spy in your school?" Zelgadis asked suspiciously.

"What are you kidding me? I've known Sylphiel for years. There's no way it's her!"

"How can you be so sure?"

"Listen I trust Sylphiel with my life. I know it's not her. She was one of the first people I told about the condition of the third eye. She would have no reason to trash my place or run us off the road. She could have gotten it easily." Lina explained.

"I would really like to know who these spies are."

"Who do you find suspicious at your school?"

"Just Xellos." Zelgadis muttered under his breath. He hadn't meant for Lina to hear him but he was just a tad too loud.

Lina's eyes were wide. "You mean that guy whose car we took? Why are you trusting him then?"

"No that's not what I meant. He's just a run of the mill menace. He's harmless... mostly. I just don't like the guy. He's annoying he lurks around like a creep and always shows up when you think you're alone. He seems to love sneaking up on people and he's good at it. And he's always looking for ways to get my goat. I'm damned sure it was him spreading those damn rumours about us."

"Oh."

"So what do we do now?"

"Well we have to wait until we get the fake before we set the trap. And I want to hold off telling Headmaster Gaberieve the plans until then. I don't want information accidently leaked."

"How about the trap? What were you thinking? It would be obvious to just announce that your school found the third eye and putting the fake on display."

"I think it would be good to 'accidently' leak information to the press about my school having the third eye. And then lock up the fake third eye in a safe room we can monitor."

"Putting a tracking device on it would be a good idea too. You got a room in mind?"

"Yup and a safe too. Just let me make some calls."

...

While Lina called, Zelgadis did more research n the eyes. But no matter how much he read he didn't find anything.

"...okay thank you. I'll talk to you later." Lina hung up her phone. "I'm going to end up with one large cell phone bill by the end of this."

"Provided we don't get killed."

Lina glared at Zelgadis. "Has anyone ever told you you're the king of negativity?"

"I'm not a pessimistic person, I'm just a realist." Zelgadis huffed defensively.

"Spoken like a true pessimist."

Zelgadis glared right back her. "So is it all set?"

"Yup for the most part. I'm going to get my little brother to deal with the techy stuff. It's his forte."

"Didn't you say something to Amelia bout him? That they had been dating?"

Lina rolled her eyes. "Yeah that little maneater. Gavin fell so hard for her and she just ripped his heart right out of him and smashed it to pieces. First girlfriend for him too. He was crushed."

"What do you think happened?"

"I figure she was just dating him to get information on me. And when I finally met her she must have been too racked with guilt for stringing Gavin along. Because she dumped him. I met her once and bam! Her and Gavin were history. Had I known she was Headmaster Sailune's younger daughter I wouldn't have been so nice to her."

Zelgadis raised his eyebrow. "Are you sure you were nice to her?"

"Of course! I was ecstatic that Gavin had finally found someone. He's such a lonely guy. You know that saying, 'nice guys finish last,'? That's him to a tee."

"Amelia and her older sister have had crushes on me for the longest time. Though Amelia isn't as crazy as she used to be. Maybe it's because of your brother?" Zelgadis wondered out loud. Sure Amelia still followed him around and constantly was checking up on him she wasn't as attentive as she used to be. At times Amelia would seem far off.

"Well if she does care for him then she should call him and tell him. Instead of using him." Lina spat out bitterly. If there was one thing that grinded her gears more than anything it was people hurting her baby brother.

"I know our headmasters will do crazy things but I don't get Headmaster Sailune making his youngest daughter date someone to get information."

"Oh well. So you found anything about the eyes that can help?"

Zelgadis sighed while rubbing his eyes. "No. No ritual or anything. Near as I can tell is if we put the two eyes together it should magically fix the third eye."

"Meaning we just need to get hold of the second eye. Funny if our two schools worked together instead of against each other we probably wouldn't be in this mess." Lina weakly laughed.

"Yeah so what do we do now?"

"Not much we can do." Lina looked at her watch and was marvelled at the time. "It's almost 3pm! And we haven't had lunch!"

Zelgadis rolled his eyes. "Well you didn't get up until like 11 o'clock."

But this was on deft ears as Lina was already rummaging through the fridge and cupboards pulling out random things.

"What are you doing?"

"You took me out for dinner last night and made me breakfast this morning. The least I can do is make us lunch."

"Can you even cook?" He regarded her suspiciously.

Lina glared at Zelgadis. "You've seen how much I eat. There's no way I could afford to eat out all the time."

"Okay so you can make edible food, but can you cook _well_?"

Lina's glare turned into daggers. "If you keep annoying me it won't. So shut up!"

"I'm going to have to get more groceries soon." Zelgadis mused looking at what was left.

"Yeah I need to go restock at my home too."

"They must love you at the grocery store."

"They do and they don't. I go to that big mega place on Balharni avenue. It's usually a combination of fear and greed that I see from the staff. But I've been told I have to call them a day or two in advance to let them know if I'm coming for usual groceries. If I don't I freak them out."

"You might want to call them, because I think we're going to go there tomorrow."

"Okay I will after lunch."

"So what are you making?"

"Doesn't matter because you're going to eat it no matter what. So shut up."


	18. Chapter Seventeen

_Author's Notes: Due to holiday madness I'm not going to do any more parts of this till probably the new year. Since I'm all caught up posting all my old parts I have to write more. I had intended to write more parts of this fic while I was reposting my older parts but I only got two and half parts done. (which is this part and the last part). I don't know, I'm working on too many series at the moment that I just couldn't get into this more. Perhaps in the New Year. My brain needs to stew a bit I guess. _

**Ruins Raiders**

Chapter Seventeen, Trouble with a Capital V

By Relm

Lunch looked like a failed science experiment but actually tasted good much to Zelgadis' surprise. With no means to do anymore research or further work out their plans Lina and Zelgadis were left bored.

"Hiding out from people trying to kill you is boring." Zelgadis mumbled.

"Yeah don't I know it."

Zelgadis frowned at Lina. "You've been stuck in a safe house before?"

"Yup. This isn't my first death threat. Usually I get stuck with boring officers that don't talk much and/or ignore me. So at least I'm lucky at least in that respect."

Zelgadis grinned smugly. "Oh so you're happy to be stuck with me?"

Lina glared at Zelgadis. "Oh shut up! You know what I meant."

A lapse of silence filled the air.

"What do you want to do now?"

Lina pulled out more paper and started to make a list. "I'm going to write out every employee I can think of at my university and then cross of the ones I don't think could be spies."

"What if the spy is a student?"

Lina glared at him. "Seriously? Must you do that? At least it will kill time. I'll think about the students later."

"We could just get our headmasters to email the employee lists. And then cross from that." Zelgadis booted up his laptop while calling his school.

While Zelgadis did that Lina did the same. Within moments they had the lists emailed to them.

"Do you have a printer?"

"Yeah give me a moment." Zelgadis rummage around the nearby desk and fished out a printer with paper and set it up. "Okay that should do it." He printed up his list first and Lina's second. "Okay so how are you going to eliminate people?"

"Start off by looking for anyone on vacation or leaves I guess. After that I don't know. What do you think?"

"Maybe we can compare lists. Who knows maybe something will jump out at us."

Lina shrugged. "Might not find anything but I guess it's worth a shot. Anything to kill time."

So Lina and Zelgadis went to analyze their employee lists first crossing anyone they didn't think could be a spy. At the end of it Lina crossed off eight names while Zelgadis crossed off six. Both lists were still very long.

"Alright that was a bust." Lina announced. "There are so many people I want to cross off the list but I can't because the only thing telling me they're innocent is my gut."

"Same here. Wanna compare now?"

"Okay."

Lina and Zelgadis put their lists side by side. From A to U the only suspicious thing was a Thomas Cameron on one list and a Cameron Thomas on the other. But they established that Thomas was a guy while Cameron was a woman. So that was just a coincidence. But when they got to the Vs they noticed something strange.

At Lina's school there was an Alphi Vrumugan on payroll. While at Zelgadis' school there was a Betam Vrumugen.

That's odd. What's your Vrumugan like?" Zelgadis asked.

"Brown hair, blue eyes, talks in monotones. Boring and has no emotion in his face. Always where's a hat. Yours?"

"Brown hair, blue eyes. Also boring, has no emotion speaks in monotones. Oh and he also always wears a hat."

"I wonder..." Lina pulled her phone out and called Mrs. Collins from the Sailune Museum. "Hi this is Professor Inverse. Can I speak to Mrs. Collins if she's available?"

"_Alright one moment please."_

Lina waited impatiently while tapping her foot.

"_Hello?" _Mrs. Collins finally came onto the phone.

"Hi this is professor Inverse. I came by the museum before to talk about the first eye. I'm going to ask you some questions that I need to ask to help with my investigation. Are you in a secure place where no one can hear you?"

"_Yes." _Mrs. Collins sounded very confused.

"Okay just answer yes and no. Do you have anyone on your staff that has a last name like Vrumugan but with a different vowel at the end?"

"_Yes."_

"Okay does he have brown hair and blue eyes? And is kinda dull and always wears a hat?"

"_Yes."_

"Okay, forget this conversation. Tell no one as this could just be a coincidence. Thank you very much and have a nice day."

"_You too."_ Mrs. Collins still sounded very confused as she hung up.

"Okay it's the same there. Wanna bet they got people in the other two Rixx schools?" Lina said after she hung up the phone.

"What do we do now?"

"Well we should call the police and given them a heads up."

"Yeah but how do we explain it? Evil triplets trying to take over the world?"

"We don't know if they are identical or not. They could just be brothers or it's a code name for this secret organization. Either way it's better than nothing." Lina insisted.

"Are you going to tell them about the trap?"

"I don't want to. I'd like to tell them as little as possible knowing if I can. But in case we catch the parties responsible it might be nice to have them there to make an arrest." Lina dialled her phone yet again.

...

"What do you want to do for dinner?" Zelgadis asked Lina when she finally got off the phone.

"Is there enough food left to make something?" Lina spied through the fridge and cupboards. "There's enough. We could make dinner together." She suggested.

"How domestic of us." Zelgadis commented as he started pulling things out to cook. "I'll cook, you do prep work and the stuff that doesn't need cooking."

"You didn't like lunch?" Lina huffed ready to smack Zelgadis over the head with a carrot.

"It looked... gross. But it tasted fine. I just like to cook." Zelgadis insisted defensively. He was used to being alone and having someone else cook for him left too many things to chance. Zelgadis wouldn't admit it but he was a little OCD. He just liked to be in control of the situation.

Lina pulled out some vegetables to dice while thinking. "So I guess you always do the cooking for your girlfriends."

Zelgadis blushed. "I've never really had a girlfriend before."

Lina dropped the knife she was holding. "Why not?" This was extremely surprising to the red head.

"Too busy with work..." Zelgadis mumbled off weakly.

"You weren't too busy when you asked me out for drinks that one time." Lina mumbled as well.

Zelgadis' blush deepened. "Well I um... I had just got the rights for the dig and I felt like celebrating I guess." He stammered over his words.

"Yeah celebrating stealing the rights from me." Lina's voice was very bitter.

"I didn't know it was you who was after the rights too. Had I known I wouldn't have asked you out." Zelgadis glared at her.

Lina glared right back. "Of course you would have. I bet the only reason you asked me is because I was the only girl around."

'Only pretty girl around.' Zelgadis thought but didn't say. The whole situation was bad enough as it was that he didn't need Lina to know that piece of information. It always irked him that despite how much Lina Inverse annoyed him she could always have such a strong effect on him. The otherwise calm and rational professor was often reduced to a hormonal teenager around Professor Inverse. She always knew how to push his buttons.

Lina watched Zelgadis with interest. He was being very quiet but blushing like a madman. 'What the heck is he thinking about?' "You know people that usually don't have time for dating end up dating at work. Amelia and that tall busty bimbo were sure making eyes at you. You dated either of them?"

Zelgadis' blush faced and horror set in its' place. "Oh god no!"

"Why not? They seem pretty enough."

"Many reasons. Amelia's too young and a little too enthusiastic and overbearing. Naga is just plain annoying and full of herself. But even if they were fine I still wouldn't date either of them."

"How come?"

"One simple rule. Never date the boss' daughter."

"Ah." Lina nodded her head in agreement.

"What about you? You involved with that assistant of yours?"

Lina shuddered. "Never! Gourry is an annoying jellyfish for brains! He always gets on my nerves and he's usually the reason my relic searches go south. And even if I did like the dummy it wouldn't matter. He's totally in love with my other assistant Sylphiel."

"Does she feel the same way?"

Lina shrugged. "I don't know. She's clueless to Gourry's feelings. She even goes as far as insisting Gourry doesn't like her like that. And every time I ask her if she likes him she always manages to change the subject. She's very good at it."

"Anyone else in your life?" Zelgadis didn't know why he was prying so much into her private life, but a part of him hoped that her social life was as poor as his.

"No." Lina laughed nervously. "Which is my choice of course! Why I'm always fighting off guys affections." Lina laughed again hoping that Zelgadis wasn't going to pick up on that she was lying. Sure she was busy, but the truth was guys were never interested in her. Dancing with Zelgadis at the party and the events of the last two days were the closest he had been to a date in a while. Not to mention way more romantic then any date she had been on either.

"Oh." If Zelgadis had caught that Lina had been lying he didn't let on that he knew.

"That restaurant you took me to... Are those people close family friends of yours?"

"Yes." Zelgadis frowned. 'Where is she going with this?'

"So then..." Lina paused. "Aren't you worried that they are talking to your family about your new 'girlfriend'?"

Zelgadis paled. He hadn't thought about that repercussion. Right away Zelgadis knew his mother was going to have a field day with that piece of false information. 'And she's probably been calling my home and I haven't been there to answer! She's going to assume I'm staying with my at my 'girlfriend's' house. Oh god I'm never going to hear the end of this!' In retaliation Zelgadis glared at Lina displaying his full annoyance.

"Hey!" Lina waved her hands in the air in protest. "You can't get angry at me for pointing out the obvious! You were the one that suggested we go that place, not me. So this is your mess and has nothing to do with me." She huffed while taking her frustrations out on the poor defenceless vegetation that she was butchering. "Just be thankful that it's just your family."

"Why would I care if your family thinks we're dating?"

"Because my dad would kill you." Lina's voice was very dry. It was true that Blitzfaust Inverse was very protective over his children. He was one of those old fashioned kind of guys that believed that a man should ask permission to date a girl. No one had tried to ask Blitz's permission to date Lina, but some guys had asked permission to date Lina's older sister Luna. Two of them ran away screaming while the third was never seen again. Whether Blitz killed the guy or scared him into hiding was something that the police were still investigating.

Zelgadis sighed. "You are more trouble then you're worth."

Lina stuck her tongue out at him.


	19. Chapter Eighteen

**Ruins Raiders**

Chapter Eighteen, Movie Time

By Relm

Dinner went pretty well. It was quiet and uneventful, except when Zelgadis tried to take the last meatball. That was a battle that he didn't win.

Afterwards Lina made arrangements to have Sylphiel and Gourry get groceries for Lina and Zelgadis. To make sure Lina and Zelgadis' location still remained secret Lina arranged it so that Sylphiel got the groceries that would be passed onto Gourry who would pass them to Gavin who would drop them off at a meeting spot where Lina would pick it up. This probably was over kill but better to be safe than sorry.

"So that takes care of that." Lina sighed while hanging up her phone. Her cell phone batter was dying from all the calls that day. Thankfully Sylphiel had packed Lina's charger. "So what do you want to do now? Watch TV?"

"My cousin didn't see the point on paying for cable when he's away. So unless you want to watch a movie, TV is pointless."

"What movies does he have?" Lina asked while already snooping around.

"I have no clue. Let's take a look." Since Zelgadis' cousin was a film buff he had an astounding amount of movies.

"There's more in the closet!" Lina called out from the hall. "What are you in the mood for?"

"I could go for anything. Wow there's a lot of zombie movies here. I knew my cousin was a little odd but I never knew he was so into horrible movies."

"What's your cousin studying abroad?"

"Architecture. It's what my aunt and uncle wanted him to study. But now I think he might have wanted to be a film director." Zelgadis mused.

"That might explain this DVD." Lina fished out the obvious homemade video from a box in the closet. "If I'm right then this may be his directorial debut film." She said as she handed the DVD to Zelgadis. It didn't have much of a cover just a title. 'Darken Night'.

Zelgadis frowned as he looked at the video. The title was ambiguous as to the subject of the film. But judging by his cousin's movie collection Zelgadis figured it was probably a horror movie "It's probably a scary movie." Zelgadis surmised.

"Or a homemade porno." Lina joked.

Zelgadis rolled his eyes. "Do you want to watch it?" He asked ignoring her comment.

"That depends... how attractive is your cousin?"

"AHHH!" Zelgadis yelled while clutching his head and covering his eyes. "Seriously? Did you have to put that mental image in my head?"

Lina laughed evilly as she snatched the DVD from Zelgadis and put it into the machine before he could protest.

In the first few moments of the movie it was clear it wasn't a porno. It appeared to be an artsy black and white movie. By the creepy music and camera angels you could tell it was meant to be scary.

In realizing that the movie was going to be a scary one, Zelgadis found himself instinctively pushing the pause button. Feeling sheepish about this conditioned reflex Zelgadis quickly looked for a reason to justify pausing the movie. "You want me to pop some popcorn before we watch the movie?"

Lina flashed Zelgadis a devious hungry smile.

Zelgadis rolled his eyes. "Yeah that was a stupid question."

"This movie looks like it could be pretty creepy." Lina said excitedly.

"Well we could put something else on if you don't like scary movies." Zelgadis suggested hopefully as he popped the popcorn.

"Nah I love scary movies! Who doesn't?" Lina shot him a toothy grin.

Zelgadis smiled back at her nervously. "Yeah who wouldn't?"

...

The movie though seemed to be low budget it was extremely creepy and well directed.

Both Lina and Zelgadis were at the edge of their seats. On more than one occasion Lina screamed and grabbed Zelgadis' arm.

Had Zelgadis not been so into the movie he might have blushed at the close contact. He also wouldn't have put a protective arm around Lina either.

By the end of the movie both professors were mentally exhausted. It had been scarier than they had expected.

"Your cousin should give up architecture and do film instead. He's a genius!" Lina exclaimed while stretching. Once she realized that she was practically sitting in Zelgadis' lap Lina quickly detangled herself from Zelgadis' arms. She blushed bright red looking around the room for something interesting to look at that wasn't Zelgadis' face. She eventually decided on the empty bowl of popcorn and sprung off the couch to put it in the kitchen.

Zelgadis inwardly sighed. He himself was blushing and relieved to not be in such close contact with Lina. Though a small part of him missed the feel of the red head in his arms. "Maybe I should email him and let him know that we liked his movie."

"Don't you think your cousin would be angry at you for snooping around his apartment? The movie was hiding in the closet after all. I'm sure if he wanted someone to watch it he would have had it out on display with his other movies." Lina rationalized happy that the conversation was on something rather than how they had been just sitting.

"Well his parents want him to become an architect, so he might have been hiding it because of them. But you're right I guess. If I were in his position I doubt I'd want someone snooping through my things." Zelgadis mused as he put the DVD back in its case.

"Now that statement makes me wonder what things you have hiding in your closet." Lina smiled at him slyly.

Zelgadis whose face had just turned back to a normal shade of flesh tone was back to blushing bright red. 'Can you not talk to her and turn into a tomato?' Zelgadis mentally berated himself.

"Oh really that bad huh?" Lina observed crossing her arms against her chest.

Zelgadis eyes were as wide as saucers. "What? I never- I never said I had anything to hide!"

"No you didn't but your blush says it all." Lina teased the professor. How quickly did she forget that she had just spent the better half a movie practically sitting in Professor Zelgadis Greywars' lap. But then again it didn't matter if Lina had been previously embarrassed. If she was the one in power and doing the teasing that's all that mattered.

If Zelgadis had been in his right mind and not so tired he might have had some choice retorts to give to the redhead to shift the power back to him. But he was too flustered to come up with anything really good. "I'm not blushing."

Lina chuckled. "Should I get you a mirror? Because you're living in denial Zel."

"The only thing I'll see is the bags under my eyes. Which would be justified as it's late and I'm exhausted."

"It's can't be that late." Lina insisted as she looked around for a clock. "No that's can't be the right time… is it really after 2am?"

"Seems like we're having a lot of late nights." Zelgadis observed.

"That movie must have been longer than I thought! Wow… yeah your cousin needs to become a movie director. Though he needs to chose better titles for his movies. 'Darken Night' is kinda lame."

"Yeah… so I'm going to take a quick shower. I'll try not to be too long."

"Good because I want to shower before bed too." Lina said while yawning. 'It would save more time if we showered together.' Lina quashed that thought as soon as she thought it. Her face was as red as her hair, but thankfully Zelgadis was already in the bathroom at that moment.

…

After Lina showered and got changed she was off to bed snuggled up in her blankets. Given how tired she was you'd expect that the moment she hit the covers she would be out like a light. But as it was sleep was eluding her at that moment.

It wasn't as though the mattress wasn't soft; in fact it was better than her bed at home. And it wasn't that the sheets were starchy, the room too hot or cold or even any strange sounds keeping her up. No what kept Lina from her precious sleep was her own brain.

Sometimes when you were an active thinker it was hard to shut your brain off at night. Thinking so much all the time can really make one tired but it was very frustrating when you wanted to sleep and you just couldn't stop thinking. There were many things that could have kept Lina's mind up at that moment. There were the thefts of the first two eyes, almost being killed, being threatened, having to live with her arch nemesis… the list just went on and on. But no, that wasn't what had Lina's mind all in a buzz.

No it was the movie.

Lina wasn't the type that got especially frightened at movies. Sometimes she would get startled but as soon as the lights came on and she left the theatre she left any fears behind with her. She wasn't one to dwell on the scarier points of a movie. Lina was a very rational minded person not afraid of anything. (Besides slugs, but she had a very good reason for that one.) Most modern day horror movies lacked a sense of realism. The plots were so outlandish that it wasn't likely any of it could happen in real life. Even the movies with ideas that could really happen didn't get Lina going too much. She's just forget about it and would be back to thinking about other things.

And while Lina had been in the shower and getting ready for bed she hadn't been thinking about the movie. It wasn't until the lights were out and she was in bed that it hit her like a ton of bricks. Suddenly her mind was buzzing with all the little creepy moments from the movie. It was all she could think about. The room was quiet, but every so often there would be some unknown noise that would have Lina on high alert. It would take her a moment of still silence before she realized that the foreign noise had come from her. And then she would relax until she heard another one.

Being a little unnerved by a movie might have been a bad thing, but being anxious about said movie when you weren't staying in your own home was a whole other level of tension.

'Lina you're being stupid,' Lina mentally pleaded to herself, 'just stop thinking about the stupid movie and go to sleep.'

…

Zelgadis was facing a similar problem in his own room. The movie kept playing out over and over again in his mind preventing him from sleeping. But that was likely to happen no matter what horror movie they watched. Zelgadis wasn't a scary movie kind of guy. He didn't watch them often and he was fine with that. Because when he did watch them he couldn't stop thinking about them. Every little thing would make him jump and he'd be on edge for days.

The only reason why Zelgadis had been fine after the movie was because he had Lina as a distraction. She'd made him blush ten shades of crimson making him completely forgetting how scary the movie had been. But once he was in the bathroom it started to sink in.

It made him feel like such a coward. And what was worse was that Lina seemed to be perfectly fine. If he admitted he was getting the heebie-jeebies then he'd look like a fool in front of her. No Zelgadis had to put on a brave face and pretend everything was fine.

'How the hell am I going to get any sleep?' He wondered as he pulled the blankets closer around him. He wasn't cold but the closeness of the bedding did offer some comfort even if it was meagre at best. 'I wonder if Lina is having the same problem as me…'

…

After what felt like hours Lina finally got fed up. She needed something to help her sleep and she needed to face her fears. And since Lina was a face your fears right on sort of a person when Lina emerged from the guest room she didn't turn on any lights. She wanted to see the darkness for what it was to prove there was nothing to be afraid of.

Lina's destination in mind was of course the kitchen. Drinking warm milk was the time honoured tradition one partook if they couldn't sleep after all.

She tried to be as quiet as she could, but fumbling around in the dark Lina knocked over a few things.

…

In his bedroom Zelgadis heard the noises coming from the kitchen. The logical part of his mind told him that it was probably Lina up getting a midnight snack. Well not a midnight snack but a middle of the night snack as it was probably after 3 at that point. But of course the irrational side of his mind argued that if it were Lina then she would have turned the lights on. The lights were clearly off.

Laying frozen in bed contemplating the unknown wasn't a healthy pastime. Zelgadis knew that he had to get up to see what was going on. The worst case scenario was that it was bugler and they were being robbed. And if that were the case Zelgadis ought to do something to spook the potential thief.

The most logical thing to do was to of course call the police. If it were an intruder they most likely had a weapon and could be very dangerous. Better to wait for the police and have just a few things stolen or broken rather then get yourself killed. But of course what if it was just Lina after all? That would be pretty stupid to call the police and have them come for nothing.

As much as he didn't want to Zelgadis got out of bed. In his home he had a bat by his bed for just this sort of situation. But this wasn't his home so he had nothing nearby to use a weapon. 'I know martial arts.' Zelgadis reminded himself but that did little to ease his fears.

Slowly Zelgadis made his way outside the room and into the kitchen. In the dark he couldn't see anything which was bad because he accidently bumped into the very person making the noise in the kitchen.

As soon as she felt that physical contact Lina had that person on the ground and her pinning him.

Feeling the familiar sensation of being knocked out flat on his back with someone straddling him Zelgadis knew exactly who he was in the kitchen with. "Lina?" He gasped as the wind still had not completely returned to him. "Can you get off me?"

Lina scampered off him and turned on the light. "What the hell were you doing? I could have accidently killed you!" Lina yelled throwing a dish towel at him.

"What were you doing sneaking around in the dark?" Zelgadis countered back.

"I couldn't sleep so I was getting some warm milk!" Lina fumed.

"In the dark?" Zelgadis stressed.

"What the hell were you doing sneaking up on me like that?"

"I thought you were an intruder!"

"And why would you think that for?"

"Because you were sneaking around in the dark! Why the hell were you doing that?"

"Because…" Lina trailed off. "I got a little creped out by the movie and I was trying to remind myself that there's nothing to be afraid off." She admitted embarrassedly.

"I thought you loved scary movies." Zelgadis pointed out. Secretly he was pleased that he wasn't the only one scared by the movie.

"So? Can't I get a little scared every now and then? And what about you? Why were you still up? I thought you said you were exhausted and really wanting to sleep."

Zelgadis frowned. "I… couldn't sleep either." He admitted.

"You were scared too huh?" Lina realized in a moment of triumphant.

"Well I don't like scary movies!" Zelgadis exclaimed walking over to the living room.

"What are you doing?"

"I can't sleep because my mind is a mess so I'm going to watch something to help me not think about that scary movie." Zelgadis plucked a DVD from the DVD rack.

"What are you going to watch?" Lina wondered following him into the living room.

"First movie of the best movie series, ever." Zelgadis held up the DVD for Lina to see.

The DVD title clearly read 'Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.'

Lina smiled while raising an eyebrow. "Kinda cliché for people in our profession."

"So you don't approve?" Zelgadis shot her a glare. 'If she insults Indiana Jones then she is dead to me.'

"Oh I approve, as it is the best movies series, ever," Lina said while sitting herself down next to Zelgadis, "but 'Temple of Doom' is my favourite one."

" 'Temple of Doom' is everyone's favourite." Zelgadis agreed.

"Well then let's watch that one then."

"No we watch them in order." Zelgadis insisted.

Lina wasn't going to argue with him. As he was right, it did seem wrong to watch them out of order. And spending the whole night curled up on the couch watching movies with Professor Zelgadis Greywars did sound very appealing.


	20. Chapter Nineteen

**Ruins Raiders**

Chapter Nineteen, Connected

By Relm

It was a natural thing when you were tired and sitting on a couch watching a movie that you would fall asleep. Lina and Zelgadis were no exception. Though the pair did love the Indiana Jones movies almost as soon as the first movie started both of them fell asleep.

_In Lina's dreams she was back on that beach again. That very same one she had been on the last time she dreamt about the eyes and Zelgadis. _

_The last time Zelgadis had the second eye hanging from his neck which caused the third eye to appear around her neck. But unlike the last time Lina wasn't pulled down into nothingness. _

"_How did this happen?" Lina asked Zelgadis motioning to the eye around her neck._

"_This is the way it's supposed to happen. They are connected... just like we are." Zelgadis explained rather cryptically. _

"_We aren't connected!" Lina fumed turning around facing her back to him. _

"_You say that but know that's a lie. You can feel it. Everything is connected." Zelgadis turned her around to face him again. _

_She tried not to look at him in the face but his sapphire eyes were so compelling it was hard to avoid their spell. Lina found herself getting lost in his eyes not even the slightest bit aware that he was leaning forward into her._

"_You know I'm right." Zelgadis' lips got every so close to Lina's when..._

Lina woke with a start her face redder than a tomato. Her blush deepened when she realized exactly how she had been sleeping. She was on the couch and so was Zelgadis. He was sprawled out on the couch with Lina lying on top of him. His arms and legs were all entangled in hers preventing Lina from escaping.

The Indiana Jones DVD menu was playing the intro clips over and over at the same volume they had set it before dozing off. With the volume so loud you'd expect that Zelgadis would wake; however he still slumbered on contently snuggling a rather stiffened Lina.

'What the hell?' Was all that Lina could register at that moment. She was too shocked to move or react to the current situation. All she could do was stare at Zelgadis' sleeping face with a combination of embarrassment, shock and horror.

Perhaps Zelgadis felt those eyes that were on him or maybe it was the repetition of the music from the DVD that woke him but for whatever reason Zelgadis' eyes fluttered opened. His sapphire blue eyes were greeted by shocked ruby red ones. "Huh...?"

Right away Lina scampered out of Zelgadis' arms and off the couch.

"What were you doing?" Zelgadis demanded very red in the face from embarrassment.

"I wasn't doing anything!" Lina insisted.

"You were lying on top of me while I was sleeping! And staring at me to boot! What were you going to do? Kiss me?" Zelgadis' voice squeaked with those last two words.

"Oh get over yourself you're no sleeping beauty! I woke up that way!" Lina screeched.

"Then why didn't you get off me then when you woke?"

"Because you were holding me pretty damn tight! I couldn't have escaped even if I wanted to!" Lina huffed stomping her feet in frustration.

"So you didn't want to get out of my arms?" Zelgadis wondered as he pondered her words.

"That's not what I meant!" Lina stormed off.

"Where are you going?" Zelgadis demanded.

"To take a shower!" Lina yelled as she slammed the door to the bathroom.

Zelgadis sat on the couch alone in the living room while Lina showered. He tried to wrack his brain to figure out how they got to sleeping in that position. 'We must have fallen asleep watching the movie... But how the hell did we end up cuddling on the couch?' He looked over to the door of the bathroom noting that he could hear the running water of the shower. 'Lina must be in the shower now...' As Zelgadis pondered this new observation a small part of him in the back of his mind reminded him of what the red head's current state of dress would be. Given how he woke up he really didn't need to be picturing Lina naked at that moment. Not that he could stop that image once it entered his brain.

He groaned in frustration as he tried to think of other things. 'Gah! That Lina Inverse is nothing by problems!' Zelgadis mentally fumed as he went to put Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom back into its case.

...

Instead of a nice hot relaxing shower Lina opted for a colder one. She needed to snap her mind back into reality and out of the gutter.

"The nerve of him thinking that I was going to try and steal a kiss from him!" Lina grumbled as she stepped into the cold shower. Since she was so agitated she barely even noticed how cold the water was. "It's bad enough I keep dreaming about him I don't need this crap too!"

A small part of her wondered what it would have been like if she hadn't woken up from that dream. What would it be like to kiss Professor Zelgadis' Greywars?

Lina shook her head violently trying to shake out those thoughts. 'No we're not thinking about him that way. Even though I was pretty close to his face when I woke... I was probably unconsciously moving closer to him because I was dreaming. If that dream continued I might have ended up really kissing him! He never would have let me live that one down!'

As Lina thought back to that dream she focused on other aspects of the dream, particularly the eyes. 'I wonder if that's true what Zelgadis said in my dream... if everything is connected.' One thing that Lina couldn't deny was the coincidental colours of the eyes both Lina and Zelgadis found. Lina found the blue one, Zelgadis found the red one. They matched each other's found eye. She had to wonder if there was something special to who found what eye. Did those who found the eyes gain a special connection to them?

But if that were true then wouldn't there be something special about the person who found the first eye of Trinibee?

It was more than 60 years ago that the first eye of Trinibee had been discovered. Just like the second and the third, the first eye was in a completely different area to its counterparts. The tribe of people that was said to have worshipped the eyes disbanded into three groups. Each group went in separate directions taking one of the eyes with them. No one was certain as to the reason behind doing this. Some speculated that those members of the tribe had an argument over which eye was to be worshipped more. Each eye was said to represent a different god whom the tribe devoted themselves too. Some believe that the tribe chose to separate to keep the eyes apart. That bringing the three eyes together could cause great calamity. So in order to protect the world they went to different corners of the world to hide their eye idols.

Much of what is known about the eyes is through the research of the pair of archaeologists that found the first eye. Professor Rezo Red and Professor Nora Lockeheart. The pair of professors had been very close in both their professional lives and their personal ones. They worked together to find the first eye and wrote many papers together on the subject. As far as their personal lives went they were in love and engaged. But the two never married. After some unknown disagreement Professor Lockeheart called off the engagement. Shortly after that she disappeared. It was thought that Professor Red had in fact killed his former fiancée for calling off their engagement. No charges were laid for lack of evidence and Professor Rezo Red went on his life until he died mysteriously only 10 years ago. No one was able to determine the cause of death as the body of Professor Rezo Red disappeared from the morgue hours before the autopsy was supposed to happen.

It was because of this that many people believe that the three eyes of Trinibee were cursed. One of the professors went missing and the other was dead but his body went missing also. These mysterious events also gave credence to the supposed powers the eyes were supposed to have.

Did Lina believe in this tall tells herself? No, but that's because she knew that Professor Nora Lockeheart didn't mysteriously disappear. How did she know this? Because Nora Lockeheart was her great-grand mother.

It was one of the reasons why Lina had been so focused on finding the other two eyes. She had her great-grandmother's diary which detailed the events of finding that first eye. It all seemed so wonderful and adventurous. But from what Lina read in that diary she knew what the real story was. Rezo sometime after they found the first eye started to develop strange disturbing behaviours. He started to get violent and angry all the time. Nora wasn't sure of it but she feared that he would try to kill her, so she fled. She hid herself completely so that Rezo wouldn't find her. Along the way Nora fell in love with a man who would end up being Lina's great-grandfather. They had one child together, Lina's grandmother Gertrude.

The diary only detailed Nora's life till Gertrude was born. Growing up Lina's grandmother told Lina that Nora went off searching for new relics to discover but still keeping her identity a secret. Lina had assumed that after Rezo's death Nora wouldn't be afraid to show her face anymore but that didn't seem to be the case. But then in Nora's diary she constantly referred to Rezo's behavioural changes as not being natural, that some outside force was to blame. Perhaps Professor Nora Lockeheart chose to remain in the shadows stemming from that previous paranoia.

It was possible that it was the eye that made Rezo go crazy. But with so many people handling and studying the first eye since it was discovered it should have caused a change in other people. But at present Rezo was the only one to have 'gone crazy' from the eye.

'I wonder if that's why these people are trying to get a hold of the eyes. Do they think these eyes are some sort of weapon that they could use to cause massive destruction?'

...

Zelgadis had breakfast almost finished when Lina got out of the shower. He choose not to comment about previous events, but instead focused on making breakfast for the two of them.

Lina frowned in thought as she came back into the kitchen. She had expected Zelgadis to make some comment or two but the Professor chose to be silent keeping his back to her. 'Is he trying to ignore me now?' Lina one for not liking to be ignored decided this was an opportune time to steal some of whatever Zelgadis was making.

"Hey!" Zelgadis swatted her hand. "Sit down over there and wait till it's finished!" He growled at her.

"I'm surprised you were able to make breakfast with so few things left in the fridge and pantry." Lina mused as she sat down at the table.

"Granted breakfast is going to be a little more 'creative' than it should be this morning but it should still be okay. It's a good thing you arranged to get those groceries later today."

"What time is it?" Lina spied a look at the clock. "11 am again. Another late morning. Oh well at least I still have time before I have to go. I'm going to the drop off spot until 2."

"I should really go in your place." Zelgadis suggested as he put their breakfast on the table. "They wouldn't be expecting me."

"Really you're fine with leaving poor defenceless me all alone?" Lina batted her eyes flirtatiously.

Zelgadis rolled his eyes. "With how many times you've gotten me flat on my back I think I would be stupid to worry about you."

"It's nice to know you care." Lina muttered sarcastically as she dived into breakfast. "Say Zel..." Lina started to say after eating for a few moments. "What do you know about Professor Rezo Red?"

Zelgadis almost choked on his food when he heard that name. "Why do you ask?"

"Just curious. What do you know about him?"

"Besides that he co-found the first eye? Well I probably know more than most people. He was my great-grandfather after all."

Now it was Lina's turn to almost choke on her food. "What?"

"Yeah it's true."

"But I never heard about Professor Red getting married and having children!" Lina exclaimed in shock. 'This is too strange...'

"He and my great-grandmother never got married. In fact their relationship was strained when she got pregnant. They hadn't been seeing each other for too long and the pregnancy caused them to split up. I doubt he even loved her at all."

"Wow Rezo must have been one cold hearted bastard." Lina mumbled thinking back to what she read in her great-grandmother's diary.

"He may have been one of the world's greatest minds but he wasn't all there. He spurted all kinds of nonsense before he died. So I guess my great-grandmother was lucky to get away from him when she did." Zelgadis let out a sigh thinking about his few experiences with his estranged great-grandfather.

"I'm surprised you never boasted your relation to him. It might have helped your career out when you started."

"I wanted to get where I was going on my own merits, not his. He may have been brilliant and found the first eye of Trinibee but I would be better on my own." Zelgadis declared. "Why are you asking about him anyway?"

"Well I was thinking about connections... between the eyes. And I got thinking about the first eye. I know there have been a few coincidences here and there but I would have never thought you were related to Rezo. That one is too freaky."

"Why because I'm his great-grandson and I found an eye like he did?"

"Because you're _also_ someone related to who found the first eye." Lina exclaimed shovelling the last bit of her food into her mouth.

"Also? What do you mean by that?" Zelgadis prompted her while being very clearly confused.

"I'm the great-granddaughter of Professor Nora Lockeheart."

"She disappeared." Zelgadis rationalized not believing what Lina was saying.

"She went into hiding. She was hiding from Rezo."

"So let me get this straight... you and I both found one of the three eyes of Trinibee and are also directly related to those that found the first eye? That's more than a coincidence, that's just plain unbelievable. It's like we're-"

"If you say connected I'm going to shove the rest of your toast down your throat." Lina threatened him pointing her fork at him. "You haven't by chance been having any strange dreams about me at a beach have you?"

"No... I don't think so... Have you been dreaming about me?" Zelgadis wondered with a raised eyebrow. You could tell by the tone of his voice that he was somewhat amused by this notion.

Lina didn't dignify that with a response. Instead she opted to go into her room to change.

_(Author's Notes: Rezo and Nora... my story within a story. This isn't the first time I've mentioned these two together. Nora Lockeheart is my fictional character who is Lina's great-grandmother. In my normal Slayersverse Nora is half elf, but obviously she is/was human in this story. When I had started Ruins Raiders I didn't even think about throwing that subplot into it but I realized I left a big hole in the background of the eyes. Who found the first eye? I tossed around ideas here and there till I got to Rezo and Nora. Why did I choose to name Rezo, Rezo Red? Well honestly I have no clue what Rezo's last name is supposed to be. He's always referred to as Rezo the Red Priest. Thus how I came to use Rezo Red. Granted not the most original choice but it was either that or give him the last name of my fictional Zelgadis' great-grandmother character Veldra Narlen. But that didn't seem right as I didn't want to have Veldra and Rezo married anyway.)_


	21. Chapter Twenty

**Ruins Raiders**

Chapter Twenty, Felix and Oscar

By Relm

The arrangement was supposed to be that Lina was going to pick up the food being dropped off for the both of them. And even though Lina had been very adamant about it, Zelgadis still managed to convince her to let him go in her place. It didn't seem to make sense to have everyone go to such lengths to get the food just to have Lina go and fetch it. Plus Zelgadis wasn't the target, Lina was. But it wasn't an easy argument for Zelgadis to win even with those compelling facts. Truthfully Lina just wanted an excuse to drive the car. She'd never had enough money to buy a flashy sports car and she had always wanted to try driving one. Though Zelgadis didn't care if anything happened to car as it was Xellos' but really no one else should drive the car. Xellos entrusted the car to Zelgadis after all. So in the end Zelgadis won the argument and Lina didn't get a chance to drive the car.

Zelgadis wasn't a flashy car kind of a person. His car was modest and gas efficient. It wasn't bright and shiny or screamed expensive. And that was generally how Zelgadis liked it. For him the car was just a means to get from one place to another. He didn't particularly enjoy driving like most people. A lot of people liked driving cars because it was their status symbols. A means to ruffle their feathers by showing how much money they had. Zelgadis didn't care for that. He always thought people with those expensive cars were just people's way of over compensating for something they felt insecure about.

So you would assume that driving Xellos' black jaguar that Zelgadis wouldn't feel anything special. But the moment he turned that key heard the car purr he couldn't help but feel a little excited. And that excitement bubbled as he drove the car to the drop off spot. Every time he stopped for a red light he could see the ladies checking him out. He was enjoying this little ride.

And he hated it.

In the back of Zelgadis' mind he could hear Xellos' voice nagging him about the car. Zelgadis had taunted Xellos several times in the past about the black jag. He had accused Xellos of only driving the car to compensate for his extreme flaws. If Xellos knew just how much Zelgadis was enjoying driving the car Zelgadis wouldn't hear the end of it.

Pulling into a loading zone in front of where the meeting spot was Zelgadis right away saw the food he meant to pick up. Instead of the groceries being in bags they were in cardboard boxes all stacked up.

A tall man with blue green hair was loitering around the boxes. Zelgadis didn't get a good look at the man as soon he walked away the moment Zelgadis got out of the car. He assumed this man was Lina's younger brother, not that he could confirm this. 'It's not like he can stick around to chit chat.' Lina had described the car and Zelgadis to her brother over the phone before Zelgadis left.

With the amount of boxes it did seem unlikely that Zelgadis was going to fit it into the black sports car. Thankfully Zelgadis loved puzzles so instead of getting frustrated Zelgadis was a little excited about the challenge. First off he checked how all the boxes were packed and right away saw potential to eliminate some of them by repacking.

By the end of it the jag was stuffed and Zelgadis was sweating. It hadn't seemed too hot out when he started but it didn't matter. The more he moved stuff the more hot he got.

"Done." Zelgadis sighed with relief as he wiped the sweat off his face. "It's a wonder how Lina does this all the time by herself. I'm exhausted and I haven't even got it back to the house yet." With another tired sigh Zelgadis got back into the stuffed car. He waited a moment to rest before starting the car back up and driving.

On the drive back to his cousin's place Zelgadis' mind wandered back to his discussion with Lina about Rezo. It was a strange coincidence he and Lina got mixed up into this strange situation when their great-grandparents found the first eye together.

Rezo wasn't a man that Zelgadis liked or looked up to. He had been a strange man up until he died. As a small child Zelgadis didn't like to be around Rezo. He'd often tell his parents that Rezo was evil, and that the bogey man was hiding inside him. Of course Zelgadis' parents kept telling him that Rezo was just a little ill and that's why he acted so strange.

Looking back Zelgadis had to wonder who was right. He did remember getting a strong feeling of dread when he was around Rezo. And Rezo did have a strong disinterest in Zelgadis. Often Rezo wouldn't even acknowledge his great-grandson's presence. Zelgadis didn't know why his father tried so hard to get Zelgadis to like Rezo. Kendan Greywars tried to hide his hatred of his grandfather a secret but Zelgadis knew better. It didn't seem like too many people liked Rezo after he found the first eye. Zelgadis' great-grandmother had tried to maintain a relationship with Rezo even after it fell flat.

It didn't seem too likely Rezo could ever make any relationship work. Or that he would find anyone who would want to try and make things work with him. But for whatever reason that wasn't the case with Rezo's last teaching assistant. Eris had strong feelings for Rezo and made them very clear to everyone. Except Rezo had either been completely unaware or didn't care for his assistant.

Zelgadis always found this obsession Eris had for Rezo disturbing. Rezo was more than twice her age. Not that Rezo looked his age. After finding the first eye it seemed like the professor had stopped aging. Even though Rezo didn't look much older than Eris, but Zelgadis still didn't like it.

After Rezo's death Eris disappeared. She was wanted for questioning concerning Rezo's missing corpse. The police were convinced that Eris stole Rezo's body. They found at her home a shrine to the deceased professor. She was clearly more obsessed then people know. It appeared to be that she had been stalking the professor before he died. But the police never found her.

As far as Zelgadis was concerned Eris could do whatever the hell she wanted with Rezo's body. It's not like she killed him after all.

Once Zelgadis pulled in front of the apartment he decided to wipe his mind of Rezo and Eris. He really didn't feel like dwelling over it too much. It felt like he had been doing the past few days was thinking and re-thinking things over. And Rezo was one person he didn't want to think about.

Getting out of the car the first thing Zelgadis did was go straight up stairs to fetch Lina. He could have managed well enough on his own but it was easier when there was someone there to hold the door open.

"Hey Lina! You going to help with the groceries?" Zelgadis called out to Lina from the front door.

In a flash Lina was out and ready. "Did you leave the car unlocked?"

"Yeah but it's right downstairs." Zelgadis justified. Truthfully he didn't really care if anything happened to Xellos' car.

"What if it gets stolen? That would be horrible!" Lina exclaimed as they got downstairs.

"Why because the car isn't mine?"

"No! The food is in there!"

Zelgadis almost groaned. Of course it was about the food. "Okay I'll get the boxes if you hold the door."

Lina shook her head. "I'm not going to be some glorified doorstop. I'm going to help with bringing up the food. We can jam the door with something else."

"Are you sure? Some of the boxes are pretty heavy." Zelgadis warned her.

Lina rolled her eyes and proceeded to unload the car with ease. It didn't matter what box it was Lina didn't seem to be having any trouble.

Zelgadis stared at her in shock. 'Wow she's stronger than I thought.'

"Are you going to gawk or am I jamming the door with you?" Lina threatened him.

"Sorry." Zelgadis mumbled.

"You'd think after how many times I've gotten you flat on your back that you'd realize I'm not a weakling." Lina muttered going up the stairs with the first load.

"Well you act like a boy half the time so I really shouldn't be shocked."

Lina turned around to glare at him. "You're lucky you're holding food. Otherwise I'd push you down the stairs."

"Case and point."

Lina did a quick scan to see if there were any breakable things in Zelgadis' boxes that wouldn't survive a fall.

"Stop that!" Zelgadis protested knowing exactly what Lina was doing. "You're not pushing me down the stairs or killing me either today!"

Lina turned around and continued up the stairs.

After a couple trips all the food was brought up the apartment and stacked on the floor.

Lina grabbed one of the boxes with mostly refrigerated stuff and started loading up the fridge.

Once Lina was finished she went to get another box.

Though Zelgadis was putting away pantry items he had to stop and rearrange what Lina had put in the fridge. Lina's haphazard way of putting things away did not bode well with him.

Lina saw this but decided to let it slide. So with the next box she was more careful and methodical with how she put the items away in the refrigerator. Pleased with herself Lina went to get another box.

Even though Lina took more care this time Zelgadis had to redo it.

"Are you going to do that every time?" Lina snapped at him.

"Well you're not keeping things organized." Zelgadis mumbled feebly.

"I feel like we're living in old re-runs of 'The Odd Couple'. Except I'm the normal one and you're the controlling neat freak."

"Wait he wasn't the abnormal one! And are you calling me a freak?" Zelgadis glared at her.

"Yes." Lina stuck her tongue out at him.

"I'm not a freak." Zelgadis grumbled.

"Okay prove it. I'll put these three boxes away and you can't rearrange anything." Lina motioned to the last three boxes to go the fridge.

"I do have some self control you know." Zelgadis huffed defensively.

"Alright then." Lina went and started to throw the last three boxes worth of stuff into the refrigerator really quickly. And it wasn't just quick it was bad too. She put the vegetables on the top shelf, the plastic jug of milk in the crisper, bread in the door shelf... Anything to annoy Zelgadis.

Zelgadis cringed as he watched this. He knew exactly what she was doing and he hated every minute of it. "So what did you want for lunch?"

"Well we have a bunch of things to choose from seeing how we have groceries." Lina commented while putting the last few things in the fridge.

Zelgadis spied a quick look at the chaos that was his cousin's fridge before Lina closed the door. "How about I make us something?" Zelgadis suggested trying not to sound too eager.

"Oh really?" Lina got up to look Zelgadis in the eye. "So that you can rearrange things while you cook?"

Zelgadis scowled. "No, I thought I'd be nice and offer to make us something."

"No, the way the refrigerator is organized is bothering you so much that you're looking for any excuse to get in there and fix it. I'll be shocked if you last more than an hour." Lina pulled out a couple things from the fridge.

"What are you doing?" Zelgadis asked right away somewhat confused by Lina's action.

"Sit down I'm making lunch." Lina smiled at him so sweetly that you could tell it was fake and menacing.

Zelgadis frowned. "Really I don't mind making lunch. I like to cook."

"Sit down." Lina ordered him.

Zelgadis begrudgingly complied.

Lina hummed as she cooked. One thing was sure what she was making did look good but the mess she was making wasn't. In fact it looked like she was making a point of be as messy as possible.

Zelgadis clenched his hands into fists as he watched her. He knew she knew it was bothering him. And she was clearly enjoying that fact. "You're an evil woman you know that?"

"Oh me?" Lina laughed all innocently. "Now why would you say that?"

"You're purposely making a mess." He pointed out rather annoyed.

"But you don't mind a little mess right? Because you're not a controlling neat freak right?" Lina's voice was sugary sweet.

Zelgadis grumbled as he tried to look anywhere besides where Lina was cooking.

It didn't take Lina long to finish making lunch and though it tasted delicious Zelgadis couldn't enjoy it. He was just itching to clean and rearrange the kitchen.

"It's killing you isn't it?" Lina asked gleefully with her mouth full of food.

Zelgadis didn't respond he just glared at her.

"I bet you're squirming in your chair thinking about all the things out of place." Lina taunted him.

"Just eat your lunch." Zelgadis angrily shoved the food into his mouth.

"Oh Zelly you're just too fun to bug." Lina reached across the table to ruffle Zelgadis' hair affectionately.

Zelgadis swatted her hand away trying his best to look angry and not blush. However as best as he tried he failed miserably.


	22. Chapter Twentyone

**Ruins Raiders**

Chapter Twenty-One, Waiting

By Relm

Lina was actually somewhat impressed with Zelgadis. Though he was clearly annoyed with Lina's kitchen antics he managed to refrain from rearranging/cleaning anything for quite some time.

But still Lina won.

Zelgadis was just a few minutes shy of his one hour target before he cracked. He just couldn't stand it any longer.

So while Zelgadis went to cleaning and rearranging Lina was looking through her notes once again. There wasn't anything new she had to add or anything new she could figure out it was just purely to waste time. While she looked at her notes her eyes were occasionally darting over to her cell phone laying on the table to her right. She knew that Sylphiel was going to call when she was finished with the eye so there was no point staring at the phone. As the saying goes a watched pot never boils so why keep watching the phone?

Truthfully Lina was fighting the urge to call Sylphiel to check up on her. But looking at the time Lina knew that her assistant would be teaching at that moment so if Sylphiel answered the phone it would be interrupting class. Though she was sure that Sylphiel wouldn't mind it wasn't something that Lina was about to do. No matter how these little side quests of Lina's panned out she was a University professor her class and its students were important. If there were no students Lina wouldn't have a job after all.

So Lina sat there trying not to look at her phone and was failing miserably at it.

"Staring at it won't make it ring." Zelgadis commented from the kitchen.

Lina turned her head around to glare at Zelgadis. "Oh shut up."

"You're going to drive yourself crazy waiting around like that. It's not like your assistant can work on the fake while she's teaching class. So at best she probably won't finish it till at least till after school. Meaning it won't be for a least a couple hours." Zelgadis pointed out as he finished rearranging the kitchen.

"So then what do you suggest we do? Sit around and twiddle our thumbs? I'm bored!" Lina huffed. "And it's not like we can do anything more research wise being stuck in this place!"

Zelgadis frowned, Lina did have a point. "Well I don't know. We'll just have to pass the time until your assistant calls. I'm sure we could think of something to do. How about we watch another movie?" He suggested.

Lina made a face at that suggestion. "We couldn't even stay awake last night to finish watching Indiana Jones. I don't really want to sit through another movie." She wouldn't have minded watching 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom' but it was likely Zelgadis would let her watch it until they watched 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' fully. And she did not want to sit through the beginning of that one again.

"Not even if I make some nice hot fresh popcorn to go with it?" Zelgadis tried to tempt the redheaded professor.

Lina paused for a moment before shaking her head. "No, no movie. But now whatever we do end up doing will involve you making popcorn." Lina warned him.

Now it was Zelgadis turn to make a face. "Of course it will."

"I wonder what secret things your cousin has hidden away around here. Is he the kind of guy you think would have something to hide?" Lina asked mischievously rubbing her hands in sinister glee.

"No. We're not snooping through my cousin's stuff." Zelgadis stated very firmly.

Lina scrunched her face into a frown. "Oh come on!" She pouted. "It's something to do..."

Zelgadis shook his head. "No we're not doing it. We'll just have to come up with something else to do."

"You're no fun!" Lina crossed her arms in protest. "What about his booze? Can we at least drink his booze?"

Zelgadis couldn't believe what he was hearing. "What? No we're not going to raid his liquor! Why would you want to drink in the middle of the afternoon for anyway?"

"Well if we were playing a drinking game it wouldn't be so odd. Besides it's something to do and it's not like we can go anywhere for a while. Plus I'm curious what you'd be like drunk." Lina smirked envisioning what sort of a drunk Professor Zelgadis Greywars would be.

"You had your chance to see me drunk but instead you chose to try and club me over the head with a shovel." Zelgadis stated recounting his first encounter with Lina. He was pleased with himself for getting the rights to the dig and thought Lina was pretty when he saw her from afar. Unfortunately for Zelgadis Lina knew who he was and that shovel was too close and too handy. Had Zelgadis had poorer reflexes he would have be smacked right into the ground he got the rights to dig for. A part of Zelgadis had to wonder if he would have chanced asking Lina out if he had known it was her rather than some random pretty girl.

Lina rolled her eyes. Yes hitting people with shovels wasn't a nice thing to do but she had been very pissed off that day. She shouldn't have tried to hit/kill him. However her only regret from that day was that she missed. "Well I don't see any shovels nearby to hit you with so you wouldn't have to worry about that."

"We're still not drinking. What if your assistant calls right after we start drinking? Do you really want to be drunk when you answer the phone?"

Lina rolled her eyes. "As you've pointed out, she's teaching right now. So she wouldn't be calling for quite a while." She pointed out.

Zelgadis frowned. "Still we're not drinking so drop it! You can get me drunk another time!" He fumed in frustration.

"Are you telling me you want me to get you drunk in the future?" Lina wondered with a raised eyebrow.

"No!" Zelgadis exclaimed his face already going red. "I'm just saying... if you're so insistent having drinks with me then it would have to be some other time in the future. And not when we are hiding from people trying to kill you."

Lina frowned. "Okay fine, but that still doesn't help with the boredom situation."

"Alright... we're not drinking but we could still play a game I guess." Zelgadis mused.

"What sort of games does your cousin have?"

"I have no idea I guess we'll have to look."

Lina's eyes brightened up at that suggestion. "Really? Then let's look." She got up all ready to riffle through Zelgadis' cousin's stuff.

Zelgadis realized his error and was quick to stop Lina. "Actually no. You sit you little snoop. I'll go look." He started looking through the hall closet.

Lina pouted as she sat herself down on the couch while crossing her arms across her chest. "I don't know why you're suddenly so paranoid about me looking through your cousin's stuff. You were fine with me looking through that closest yesterday."

"I didn't realize just how devious you can be." Zelgadis called out to her and he fished out all of his cousin's assorted games.

"Really now? I find that hard to believe. You always act like I'm a devil incapable of doing any good." Lina chided.

Zelgadis chuckled. "I guess I like to believe even little devils are able to be good sometimes." He plopped the assorted boxes down on the coffee table. "Okay we have decks of cards, chess, checkers, Battleship, Clue, Monopoly, a couple murder mystery games and Scene if? Horror Edition."

"Not too surprising about that last one seeing how he likes his horror movies. Want to play that one?"

"No!" Zelgadis very quickly without even thinking about it.

Lina was almost startled by how quick and how loudly Zelgadis answered. "Gee you really don't like horror movies do you?"

Zelgadis frowned. "I don't see the point in playing a game when I wouldn't get any of the answers right and have no hope at winning." He justified.

"It's just a game Zel it's not going to be that scary." Lina taunted him ignoring his 'explanation'.

"We're playing something else!" Zelgadis almost growled at her.

"Okay then what are we playing?"

Zelgadis looked around at the games he had placed on the table. On the top of the pile was the two decks of cards. Right away he snatched one of them up. "There are tones of games we can play with cards. Like we could play go fish."

Lina made a face at that suggestion. "What are you in grade one? C'mon let's be a little more adventurous."

"Okay let's play poker."

Lina smirked a rather devilish smirk. "Well if we are playing poker then we have to have something to bet."

"Why do we have to?"

"Because that's what makes gambling fun."

Zelgadis narrowed his eyes at her. "I bet your some kind of card shark that would love to swindle me out of my money."

"Well mama does need a new car." Lina's smile broadened.

Zelgadis in turn rolled his eyes. "No, not money. We'll have to play for something else."

Lina felt rather naughty at that moment. What else would you play for when it came to poker when there was no money? Why clothing of course. "Okay about we play strip poker?" Ordinarily Lina would suggest something quite so bold as stripping in front of people wasn't something she would do. But she was a card shark, and was definitely sure she would have him out of his clothes before she even had one sock taken off.

Right away Zelgadis face turned bright red. "I think not!"

"You're such a prude." Lina reached over the table and plucked out the chess set. "Sometimes tells me chess is your kind of game. Which means you'll be devastated when I beat you."

"We'll see about that."

...

Sylphiel let out a bored sigh while she watched Lina's class. She sat in Lina's chair while the class was taking a test. The room was very quiet with only the sounds of the ticking off the clock and pencils being scraped across paper to fill the silent void.

The job of any teacher while a class is taking a test is to watch. The teacher must make sure that none of the students are cheating. It was a necessary evil but it made things ever so boring.

Sylphiel only had a vague idea of what Lina was planning but she did know that Lina needed that fake third eye. But between classes and nosy co-workers Sylphiel was having trouble getting the time to work on the fake. It was very frustrating for Sylphiel. More so since she was stuck babysitting a class when she could be spending that time working on the replica.

Another thing that was annoying Sylphiel was everyone asking where Lina was. Very few people in the university knew what was going on. So that left Sylphiel having to make up stories to explain where the red headed professor was. Sylphiel generally stuck to the same story, that Lina was off on another relic hunt and would be back in a few weeks. For the students that was enough of an explanation as Professor Inverse was away often. But for other people in the university this didn't make sense. As even though Professor Inverse was a strong and smart she usually brought some muscle along for those hunts. So if Professor Inverse was on another relic hunt why didn't she bring her assistant along with her?

The only thing Sylphiel could say was that Lina didn't want to bring Gourry along this time. That Professor Inverse had her reasons. Even then they didn't believe her; they all assumed there was some other reason. That there was something else going on. Sylphiel wasn't aware of this but there was a rumour going around that Gourry chose not to go with Lina because he wanted to spend time alone with Sylphiel.

'Maybe I could get Gourry to watch the class so I can go work on that replica.' Sylphiel thought to herself as she chewed the eraser end of a pencil. But as she thought about it more she quickly decided against that idea. 'The last time Gourry watched a class he fell asleep.'

Letting out another sigh Sylphiel just sat there and waited. The ticking of the clock was going far too slow...


	23. Chapter Twenty Two

**Ruins Raiders**

Chapter Twenty-Two, Gossip

By Relm

After a couple hours of playing chess Lina had to stop. If you were a real avid chess player playing for several hours was something you greatly enjoyed. But Lina wasn't a hardcore chess player so she could only take so much of it.

Zelgadis on the other hand was a hardcore player. He loved to play and hated to lose. Often if you lost several times while playing a game it would make you not to play it anymore.

By that logic you would assume that Lina didn't want to play anymore because she a supposed 'novice' player was repeatedly losing to Zelgadis an 'expert' chess player. But the truth was actually quite different.

It didn't matter how times Lina and Zelgadis played, Lina always won. So as such Lina was getting very bored. She liked challenge in her games so this was fun only after a few games. Lina wanted to stop but Zelgadis was the one that kept insisting they play 'one more game'. He wanted a chance to vindicate himself. But Lina couldn't only let this go so far.

"Enough! I don't want to play anymore." Lina declared rather loudly.

"C'mon Lina! One more game!" Zelgadis pleaded with her.

Lina scrunched her face into a frown. "We could play a thousand games and you'd still end up losing."

"No! I'm actually really good at chess. There's no way I could lose every _single _game." Zelgadis insisted.

"You've lost all of them up until now." Lina pointed out.

"Beginners luck." Zelgadis scoffed.

"I'm not a beginner and luck has nothing to do with chess. Unless you luck out and your opponent is stupid."

Zelgadis glared at her. "Are you calling me stupid?" He dared her to answer.

"I was actually implying that most of your previous opponents were stupid but if the shoe fits." Lina smirked at him while she ate some more popcorn.

Zelgadis rolled his eyes. "Alright fine let's say we stop playing chess. What do you propose we do to pass time?"

"Well what games did he have again?" Lina wondered out loud as she rummaged through the pile. "Well you already poo pooed my strip/money poker idea. And most card games don't really take much time to do... I don't know. I'd like to call Sylphiel but there's no point. It's still too early..."

Zelgadis frowned. "Being stuck in hiding can be so boring... What did you do when you were bored in a safe house?"

"Usually annoy the officers assigned to me."

"Why don't I find that surprising?" Zelgadis muttered sarcastically.

"Hey you volunteered yourself for this gig. I had originally protested to this arrangement. So don't get all testy with me." Lina chided with a superiority tone to her voice.

"This was the most logical setup." Zelgadis weakly defended himself.

"Logic my ass! You just wanted to spend time with me. Everyone knows you're head over heels in love with me!" Lina ribbed at him. She was bored after all, so how better to pass the time than to annoy the one assigned to her?

Zelgadis scoffed at the notion. "Ha! I love you like a person loves a kick in the guts!" Though he was trying to be all indifferent to the idea he couldn't help but blush a little.

"Well love hurts." Lina shot back. She was actually quite pleased with how quickly she get Zelgadis' goat.

Zelgadis rolled his eyes. "I'm surprised your head can fit in doorways with it being so massive with the size of your ego."

"I point out the truth you get all nasty with me. Tisk tisk." Lina just shook her head with a smug grin plastered onto her face.

"It's as much the truth as the all rumours running rampant in our schools!" Zelgadis exclaimed in exasperation.

"Well then why did you want me to stay with you?" Lina raised a suggestive eyebrow.

"I told you it was the most logical solution. Staying here with me makes the most sense."

"We went over this already. What I'm basically asking you is why you cared enough to suggest it."

Zelgadis at first stared at her blankly not quite understanding what she meant. "Cared enough? What is that supposed to mean?"

"We're each other's greatest rival, we don't get along and we've made public mockeries of each other in the news. So why do you care if my life is in danger?" It was question that had been on Lina's mind for a little while now. But it was one that she was afraid to ask.

Zelgadis couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You'd think I'd stand by and do nothing while someone's life is in danger? What sort of a person do you think I am?"

Lina rolled her eyes. "You know as well as I do that I'm in danger a lot. I get death threats all the time and not once have I been killed. So how is this different?"

"Um... well... the eye! Of course the eye. They took our eye and your broken eye is the only chance we have to get it back." Zelgadis fumbled over his weak answer.

Lina frowned. She had known he would have retreated to a logical answer. But deep down she had hoped even in her playful jesting that she would at least get something out of him. "Fine, but for the record I think you're hiding things. Regardless quite moping and whining about how horrible it is to be stuck with me. You're no peach either."

"What? I cook you meals and I do the dishes! Last I checked that a good roommate thing, especially when your roommate is a guy!"

Lina rolled her eyes. "The only reason why you do those things is because you have OCD."

"I do not have OCD!"

Again more eye rolling from Lina. She decided she was bored with this conversation and went to boot up her laptop while donning her reading glasses.

"What are you doing?"

"Well this talk about rumours has got me wondering what ones are going around my school right now."

"And you can check on your computer?" Zelgadis frowned. He competent with computers but for him they were mostly used for data entry and retrieval. He very rarely used his computer for leisure uses like checking his email or going on social networking sites.

"Seriously? It's because of fuddy duddys like you that everyone thinks us professors are stuck in the past with our noses in books. Yes I can check. My university has a message board site where the students and co-workers just love to gossip." Lina said with a smirk as she finished loading up her computer and logging into the site. "Your school probably has a similar site."

"I wouldn't know, I've never gone looking before." Zelgadis admitted.

"Well we can go check after I'm done with my site. Let's see... what are my kids saying about me...?" Lina scrolled through a couple of the threads and was a bit surprised what she saw. "WHAT? This is what they are saying about me?"

"What is it?" Zelgadis asked trying to look over her shoulder while squinting. It was hard as his own reading glasses were in another part of the room and Lina kept moving her head.

"According to several posters I'm currently off somewhere searching for a relic alone. And the reason why I'm alone is because my stupid assistant Gourry dumped me for my other assistant Sylphiel! As if! I've never been involved with that jellyfish brains nor do I ever want to!" Lina yelled at the computer in frustration.

"You did say that your assistant had a crush on your other assistant. With you disappearing like you did it's not too big of a leap to come to that conclusion. Is there anything about me in there?"

Lina scrunched her face into a frown as she smacked Zelgadis with a pillow. "I'm facing my name being defiled by being in association with my blond assistant and all you care about is whether they talked about you? Gah! How selfish!"

"I meant is there anything about the two of us?"

Lina frowned and went back to scanning the threads. "Most of these are from after the dance. Apparent you're the reason why my assistant dumped me."

"Well at least you traded up." Zelgadis tried to reassure you.

"But it says our relationship is doomed." Lina added.

"Why?"

"Because according to this user XeWolfGen you're gay. And you're only using me to break me and Gourry up so you can have him to yourself."

"WHAT?" Zelgadis yelled. "You're lying! It doesn't say that!" Zelgadis snatched the laptop from her. "Why the slimy bastard! I'll kill him!"

"You know this guy?"

"That's Xellos! He uses that name on his email when he forwards me junk I never read. Because the one time I did look it was a virus." Zelgadis muttered. "I can't believe that idiot would do such a thing! I'm not gay!"

"There's nothing wrong with being gay you know." Lina reminded him.

"I know that! But I don't like be accused of being something I'm not! Gah! This is so frustrating!" Zelgadis screamed.

"I don't know why you're so upset for. It's not like any of my students care about your sexual orientation or who you may or may not be dating. I'd be more worried about things he's doing on your own school's grape vine."

Zelgadis paled at that thought. "Okay how do I check to see if my school has one of these message board/networking site thingies?"

"For starters give me back my computer." Lina snatched her laptop away from Zelgadis and did a quick search on the internet. It didn't take Lina too long to find what she was looking for. "There you go."

It didn't seem to be possible, but somehow Zelgadis managed to get even paler. "He's... even put up... fake pictures of me!"

"Is that really what you look like naked?" Lina asked with a slight blush colouring her cheeks.

"No! That's not my body! I'm going to kill him! I'm really going to kill him and I'll make him suffer while I do it!" Zelgadis declared.

...

Even though Xellos was sitting at his desk drinking piping hot tea he felt himself shiver. "Oh my I seem to have caught a bit of a chill." Xellos mumbled as he took another large sip of his tea. "Now where was I? Ah right, I was about to finish posting the rest of those indecent photos of _'Zelgadis'_." Xellos erupted with evil laughter.

In the hall watching Xellos stood a man wearing a hat and a very bored expression on his face. People passed the man in the hall but no one bothered to say hello to him. They just walked by ignoring him. It's like this man would greet them back. Betam Vrumugen was a strange man after all who kept to himself and only talked if needed. At the moment the only thing that seemed to catch his interest was Xellos.

Pulling out his cell phone Vrumugen dialled a number while never looking away from Xellos. It was a number he had dialled many times so he didn't need to see the keys to know he was dialling it correct. He just dialled and listened to it ring waiting for someone to pick up.

"_What do you have to report?" _A voice said on the other end of the line. There was no normal phone etiquette it was strictly business.

"Professor Greywars is still away and his assistant is teaching is class."

"_What reason are they giving to Professor's Greywars absence?" _

"That he is still searching for the third eye."

"_Professor Inverse is also away, that is suspicious."_

"What do you want me to do?"

"_Keep watching. Let me know if there are any changes." _

"Yes Mistress." And with the Betam Vrumugen hung up his phone and went back to watching Xellos.


	24. Chapter Twenty Three

_Author's Notes: Due to inventory at work I didn't have much time to work on this fic. So in an effort to get it out faster I didn't proof read it this time. Please ignore any laughable errors. _

**Ruins Raiders**

Chapter Twenty-Three, So It Begins

By Relm

The moment classes were over for the day Sylphiel raced to Lina's office to retrieve her little project from Lina's wall safe. The safe was a typical wall safe hiding behind a large painting. Given how often Lina's office and home got ransacked by thieves Lina was very particular on who she told her safe combination to. At present Sylphiel was the only other person besides Lina that knew the combination. Lina didn't trust anyone else not even Headmaster Gaberieve.

Sylphiel knew she was one of the few people that knew the combination so she was very careful the few times she used it. She didn't want to accidently let the combination be known by opening up the safe in front of many people. No Sylphiel almost never opening the safe and when she did she always made sure to do it when she was alone.

Because of the nature of the project she was working on Sylphiel felt using the safe in this instance was a good idea. There were other things in the safe but Sylphiel was only after what she herself had put there. She pulled out the small wooden box and placed it gingerly on the desk before closing the safe. The wooden box looked simple enough with a flowers etched into the sides. It didn't look particularly spectacular; it was just an old wooden box. What made one's eyes travel to it was the shiny padlock on the clasp. It was locked because it contained Sylphiel's little project, the fake third eye.

Rather than work on the eye in comfort of Lina's office Sylphiel opted to go another location to work. Each time she worked on the eye she chose a different place so as to not be seen working on it. She had no idea who she could trust in the university so she chose not to trust anyone.

Today's chosen place to work in for Sylphiel was dark room of the photography class. She chose this room as she knew that no one would be using the room as that class ended hours ago. Plus if she had the light on outside the door she knew that no one would come into the room.

An assistant to a history professor might have been a strange sight going into a photography class. However Sylphiel was often seen going into the class as she tended to take lots of photos. Sylphiel was a woman of many talents so no one would have batted an eye at her.

Safely locked into the dark room Sylphiel turned on a flash light and opened the box. Inside the box looking back up at her was a replica of the third eye. Going on Lina's drawing Sylphiel tried to make the eye look as perfect as she could.

'Just a couple more lines and it should be ready.' Sylphiel thought to herself as she got to work.

...

"So what do you want to do for dinner?" Lina wondered as she watched Zelgadis make a card castle. They had abandoned searching the message boards and playing games and somehow things ended up with Zelgadis making a castle. It started off with Zelgadis just absentmindedly playing with the cards and somehow he just got into it.

"Probably something quick and easy just in case your assistant calls." Zelgadis answered without even looking at her.

Lina might have taken offence to being semi-ignored but the castle was attention grabbing so she didn't care. She had seen some elaborate card castles before not this large or complex by a single person. It was taking all her self control not to knock it down. "Sandwiches are quick. Wanna do that?"

"Sounds good." Zelgadis answered while half mumbling. Most of his attention was on the castle that he was so engaged in.

"How big is the largest card castle you've made before?"

"Two more cards and I'm at my record."

"So..." Lina leaned in close near Zelgadis' ear and whispered seductively, "I guess it would be horrible if you got... distracted."

Zelgadis froze with those two needed cards in his hands. He had be right in the middle of putting the cards on the castle when Lina whispered in his ear. If he let the go of the cards the wrong way and they didn't set right the castle was sure to come crashing down. "Don't you dare." He warned her also whispering.

"Whatever do you mean by that?" Lina asked again whispering seductively. "You don't find me distracting... do you?" With that last word she got closer to him that she was almost touching.

Zelgadis closed his eyes to try and refocus but that jarred the cards enough and castle went down. When he opened his eyes they were transfixed on Lina with a deathly glare.

Lina in turn smugly smiled at him in defence.

"Evil isn't even a strong enough word to describe you." Zelgadis narrowed his eyes at her.

"Oh poo! You're so mean to me Zelly! And here I was about to make you a sandwich."

"I can make my own food." He insisted still glaring."

"OCD."

"I'm not OCD! I just have particular tastes so it's better off I make my own food." Zelgadis huffed in his flimsy defence.

"A sandwich is a sandwich." Lina exclaimed with rolled eyes.

"What sort of sandwich were you going to make for yourself?"

"Obviously I'm going to make more than one. But right now I'm definitely hankering for a cheddar and peanut butter sandwich."

"Cheese and peanut butter?" Zelgadis exclaimed in horror. "That's disgusting!"

"Have you ever tried it before?" Lina prompted him with her hands on her hips.

"Well no-"

"Then you shut up! And it's not just any old cheese nor is it just any peanut butter. It's cheddar and thick creamy peanut butter, not that natural stuff."

"So the kind with all the extra sugar and fat."

"When you have a craving something when is it ever the healthy option?" Lina dared to ask.

"Well if you're making that for yourself then I'm definitely making my own." Zelgadis decided while cleaning up the cards.

"You could clean that up after we eat."

Zelgadis paused for a moment as he pondered Lina suggestion. He shook it off and went back to cleaning up.

"OCD." Lina concluded.

"I'm not OCD!" Again Zelgadis cried out in frustration.

...

A short while later Lina and Zelgadis were in the middle of eating the sandwiches. For Zelgadis it was two simple sandwiches. One of them was a ham and cheese while the other was a turkey club. While Lina on the other hand had several, all of them different kinds.

"Just try a bite." Lina pleaded while holding her peanut butter and cheddar sandwich in front of Zelgadis' face.

"No, and get that thing away from me." Zelgadis turned himself to one side to get away from Lina's offending sandwich.

"You are so stubborn and pigheaded that you won't even try one bite?"

"It looks gross, so no I won't! Now drop it!" Zelgadis growled at her.

"Come on don't be such a fuddy duddy." Lina waved the sandwich in Zelgadis' face.

"Lina I mean it! I have enough food already!" Zelgadis tried to swat Lina's hand away.

Lina was going to say something but she was interrupted by the ringing of her cell phone. "My phone!" Lina leapt from her chair almost dropping the sandwich in her hand to run to the living room where she had left her phone. "Hello?" She asked all out of breath as she answered it.

"_Miss Lina, it's Sylphiel. Are you okay? You sound out of breath." _Sylphiel responded while whispering. Clearly where she was she was afraid of getting caught.

"I had to run to grab my phone. What is it Sylphiel?"

"_It's finished."_

"How does it look?"

"_As good as I can make it under the circumstances. Do you want me to send you a picture?" _

"Alright. But I'm sure it looks okay. Where are you right now?"

"_I'm in the photo class dark room."_

"Okay don't let anyone see it until we get there."

"_We? Who are you with?" _

"Never you mind that. I'll take care of the details before I get there."

"_Alright Miss Lina. I'll take the picture and send it to you after I hang up. See you soon." _

"So your assistant finished the eye replica?" Zelgadis asked Lina after she hung up her cell.

"Yup she's taking a pic of it right now to send me." Lina looked at her phone and waited for the incoming message. "Here it is." Lina clicked the picture and held her phone up for both of them to see.

Zelgadis put on his glasses and took a good look at the phone. "Well one thing is for sure, your assistant is good. That looks better than the fakes the thieves have been leaving behind." He stated with a frown.

"What does that mean?"

"Well have you considered the fact that maybe your assistant was the one that made the fakes?"

Lina threw at dish rag at Zelgadis. "I told you I trust Sylphiel with my life."

"Does she know all the plans?"

"No. But you don't need to worry about her. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some calls to make." Lina took her phone and went into the spare bedroom.

Zelgadis sat back down in the kitchen. Lina's peanut butter and cheddar sandwich sat on a plate on the counter staring at him. He glared at the strange looking sandwich. Though he had no intentions of eating it curiosity was getting the better of him. 'It can't taste that good.' Zelgadis decided to himself as he went to ignore the sandwich.

But try as he may it was hard to ignore the sandwich on the plate.

As Zelgadis went to reach for the sandwich Lina poked her head through the doorway. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing." Zelgadis replied sheepishly as he sat back down in his seat.

...

Within an hour Lina and Zelgadis were on the road on their way to North Rixx University. Since they were heading to Lina's school she justified that she should be the one driving. Of course this didn't fly well with Zelgadis, as he had already told her she couldn't drive the jag and he knew the way to the school anyway.

Even driving the luxurious car didn't distract Zelgadis from the knots that were tightening in his gut. But then that was a natural thing when you were heading into enemy territory. The last time he had gone to North Rixx University was to snoop around their library. It had been after hours so he hadn't been as likely to be caught.

Though it was after hours now too at the time they were heading to the school, it wouldn't be late enough for Zelgadis to go unnoticed. Especially if he was waltzing in with Lina next to him.

Zelgadis' grip on the wheel was a tight one as he worried about the ramifications of his actions would be. His headmaster was already aware that he was helping Lina, but the rest of the school wasn't. Who knows how many new rumours were going to fly. And what if they came face to face with Headmaster Gaberieve?

Yes there was fear in his gut, but thankfully Zelgadis was still able to keep his mind on the road.


	25. Chapter Twenty Four

**Ruins Raiders**

Chapter Twenty-Four, Night School

By Relm

While Zelgadis drove Lina was on her cell calling her various contacts to put the plan into motion. Her brother was already on his way to the school with all the last minute things needed to set up the trap. The only person that Lina hadn't called about the upcoming plans was Headmaster Gaberieve himself.

"Are you going to call your Headmaster and let him know the plans?" Zelgadis wondered as he made a quick inquiring sideways glance to the redhead sitting next to him. He himself had already called his own Headmaster before they left to let them know the plans were on their way. Since the trap was happening at Lina's school there was no way it could happen without Headmaster Gaberieve knowing of it.

Lina inwardly groaned. "Do I have to?"

"You know the answer to that question. He might get a little pissed if he comes in tomorrow and finds me there." Zelgadis chided.

"You're assuming that the thieves won't try and steal the fake tonight." Lina huffed with an almost snobbish voice.

"Listen here you're going to tell him because I'm not going to be the one to explain why I'm at your school when your Headmaster comes bursting in the room." Zelgadis insisted.

"Aw... Is Zelly afraid of the big bad Headmaster?" Lina teased him in a baby talk sort of a voice. She would have ruffled his hair too had he not been driving.

"Of course I am! Do you think I want to get killed? So call your boss now!"

Lina frowned. "He's not going to be happy with me calling him at his home..." She grumbled while dialling Headmaster Gaberieve.

"_What is it Inverse?" _Headmaster Gaberieve answered his phone very gruffly not even bothering with the courteous standard phone greetings. But then again Lina was calling him at his home so he probably wasn't pleased about the call no matter who it was calling.

"Hello Headmaster... I'm calling to let you know I'm on my way to the school to set a trap for the thieves."

"_You're supposed to be hiding from them! Why the hell would you want to catch them for? You should be working on eye, not playing cops and robbers!" _Headmaster Gaberieve almost yelled into the phone.

"From my research it seems the only way to get the third eye fixed is to use the second eye to do it." Lina explained slowly and carefully. It was always a good idea to air on the side of caution when it comes to the Headmaster.

"_Oh... So you're going to try and steal back the eye to fix our eye? Isn't that dangerous? They are trying to kill you for crying out loud!"_

"If everything goes the way we plan it they won't even see me."

"_We...? What are these plans? Who are you working with? It's him isn't it? Answer me this time! If you hang up on me I'll fire your ass!"_

"...yes..." Lina answered very weakly. Her voice was so soft that it was almost impossible to hear her.

"_YOU'RE WORKING WITH PROFESSOR GREYWARS?" _Had Lina not brought her phone away from her ear and waited just a moment later then she would have gone deaf for sure.

"Listen... Someone stole their eye, and we need it to fix ours. Working together is the only real way to deal with out problems. You think I can do this all by myself? People are trying to kill me for crying out loud!"

"_I suppose it can't be helped. Fine you can work with him but as long as he's not going with you to the school. The last thing I need is one of their spies snooping around our school."_

"...he's driving..." Again Lina's voice was very meek.

"_WHAT? SO IT WAS HIM YOU WERE STAYING WITH!"_

"Yes it was. I was safest with him because he's the last person someone would expect me to stay with."

"_You're dating him." _Headmaster Gaberieve stated rather than asked.

"For the last and final time, I AM NOT DATING PROFESSOR GREYWARS!" Lina screamed into her cell phone.

Zelgadis winced from the volume of Lina's voice and the words she chose to scream. 'It's like I'm a disease or something.' He thought miserably.

"_Fine. But you're not letting him out of your sight the whole time he's there. I do not want to hear about him walking off somewhere by himself."_

"Don't worry he's going to be with me the whole time." Lina assured him.

"_This better work or I'm firing you for sure." _Headmaster didn't even say bye as he hung up. He just slammed the phone down just as rudely as he had answered it.

"Assuming I don't get killed first..." Lina muttered to herself as she closed her phone.

"So is everything okay?" Zelgadis asked once Lina had closed her phone.

"Oh just peachy." Lina snapped sarcastically. "I just have one more call to make." She dialled a number she very rarely ever called.

"_Hello?" _A very happy-go-lucky female voice answered the phone.

"Hey, Milly, it's Lina. Have I got news for you..."

...

"So your receptionist is a gossip?" Zelgadis wondered as the pair pulled into the North Rixx University parking lot. Lina had just gotten off the phone with Milly which wasn't an easy feat. Milly did like to gab.

"Huge gossip! Which is why we try not tell her anything."

"So is telling her enough to leak the information for the trap?"

"Probably. But I've got Gavin spreading the 'news' on the net just in case." Lina assured Zelgadis as the two got out of the car.

"It's about time you got here!" A shivering female voice exclaimed.

Lina and Zelgadis both looked to their left to find Amelia standing trying to rub some warmth into her arms. It seemed that the youngest Sailune daughter failed to put on a jacket.

"Amelia what are you doing here?" Zelgadis wondered.

"When you called Daddy earlier he thought it would be a good idea if there was someone else from our school there just in case."

"And he picked you?" Lina narrowed her eyes at Amelia n disbelief.

"Why is that so hard to believe?" Amelia huffed defensively.

"Because Amelia," Zelgadis interjected, "you are his youngest daughter. I highly doubt your father is willing to send you to do something that could be potentially dangerous."

"Well he trusts me the most." Amelia justified crossing her arms.

"Amelia..." Zelgadis shot her a stern look.

"He doesn't know I'm here." Amelia admitted. "But you should have someone with you."

Lina let out a tired sigh. She knew they wouldn't be able to get rid of Headmaster Sailune's youngest daughter. Amelia was going to have to come with them. However this was going to make for an uncomfortably situation for Lina's younger brother. "Fine let's go."

"Are you sure?" Zelgadis prompted Lina to make sure she wasn't making a snap decision.

"I'm in trouble already it's not like it could be any worse."

The security guards at the front door looked at Lina with curious alarm. "Professor Inverse? Why are you here so late?"

"I'm just attending to some work that can only be done at night." Lina explained cryptically.

"But Professor Inverse... we have strict orders not to let anyone from East Rixx University on campus." The other guard piped up nervously.

"It's fine they are with me. If you need to confirm this then you can call Headmaster Gaberieve at home. However he's not in a good mood right now." Lina suggested looking very confident.

The guards considered what Lina said to them and they paled at the thought.

"Make sure to call is there is any problems." One of the two guards opened the door for Lina, Zelgadis and Amelia to go through.

"Will do. Thank you." Lina gave them a nod before going into the university.

Inside the halls of North Rixx University things were quiet and calm. The only sounds were the light footsteps of Lina, Amelia and Zelgadis. But in the quietness of the halls the footsteps may as well been booming crashes bouncing off the walls. It did little to abate the mutual tension and uneasiness of the trio.

As Lina led the people from East Rixx to their intended destination she couldn't help but look at Amelia from time to time. Thoughts of her little brother filled her head each time worried about what he will say.

That first and only time Lina had met Amelia when Gavin was dating her Amelia didn't look quite the same as she did now. Sure she was still the same height and had the same hair but back then Amelia wore glasses. Lina had to wonder if this was because Amelia had needed them or if she had been trying to disguise her appearance from Lina. Whatever the reason Lina desperately wanted to interrogate his brother's ex. "My assistant should be waiting inside." Lina announced as they got the room. When Lina went to knock on the door she did so in a somewhat strange rhythm. As she instructed to her brother on the phone Gavin or Sylphiel wasn't going to let anyone in unless they knocked a certain way.

Sylphiel was the opened the door and she did so with a gasp. "Miss Lina you brought Professor Greywars here?" Sylphiel exclaimed with a hushed voice.

"Don't worry Headmaster Gaberieve knows." Lina assured her assistant while going past her into the room.

Inside the 'vault' room was Gavin hard at work rigging the cameras and tracking devices. "It's about time you got here." Gavin chided without even looking up from his work.

"Well the safe house isn't exactly close to the university." Lina snapped back.

Amelia stood in the room staring in shock. When she had heard of the plans she had no idea Gavin would be there. She felt her chest tighten and heart beat faster as she stared at him. Breaking things off was something she never wanted to do. But how could she continue to date him when she knew he was the younger brother of Lina Inverse? Professor Inverse was from North Rixx, there was no way her father would allow it. Amelia of course had no idea Gavin was an Inverse when she met him. Had she, she would have stayed away.

Maybe on a subconscious level Gavin was aware someone was staring at him because he felt the need to look behind him at that moment. He couldn't have been more surprised to see who it was looking at him. "Amelia?" Gavin called out in confusion. His face reflected the hurt Amelia had caused him even though he desperately sought to hide it.

Hearing Gavin call out her name and seeing the pain on his face made Amelia's heart ache. How she wanted to jump into his arms and shower him with kisses. She wanted to tell him she was sorry and that she loved him dearly. But alas Amelia couldn't. In this emotional tug-a-war her head won over her heart. "Hello Gavin." She greeted him in a somewhat of a neutral tone.

Lina gritted her teeth as she thought of some choice words to describe the raven haired blue eyed girl at the moment. She really had expected Amelia to apologize to Gavin and beg him to take her back. Of course Lina could see the remorse of Amelia's face so it made it more confusing to why Amelia did nothing. "For the record I didn't invite her along." Lina announced.

"Who is she?" Sylphiel wondered noting the tension in the room.

"That's Amelia Will Tesla Sailune. She would be Headmaster Philonel Sailune of East Rixx's younger daughter and my little brother's ex-girlfriend." Lina explained in a none too impressed voice.

The confusion on Gavin's face multiplied. "You were from East Rixx?" Gavin looked to Amelia for answers. "Is that why you dated me? Were you using me to get information to pass onto your father about my sister and North Rixx?"

"No!" Amelia almost yelled out. "Gavin I wasn't using you! Honestly I swear!"

Lina waved up her hand getting between the former love birds. "I want answers as much as the next person but we're on a tight schedule people. So let's get things set up first!"

Gavin obliged and went back to work ignoring everyone.

"Sylphiel let's see the fake you made." Lina held out her hand.

Sylphiel handed Lina the box she was using to hide the eye.

Lina examined the fake very closely noting each detail Sylphiel had made. If you put the fake between the real first and second eyes you wouldn't find it hard to believe that the fake wasn't a real one. It was very convincing. However as Lina looked at it she realized Sylphiel made it exactly the way Lina had drawn it. She had thought her drawing had been pretty good but looking at the fake she could tell right away that she had made some mistakes with the drawing she sent Sylphiel. "It looks exactly the way I drew it."

"I did my best to make it as close as I could." Sylphiel assured Lina.

"Except going on my drawing alone probably made it inaccurate. But unless Gourry is the spy I doubt the thieves are going to know any better. Good work Sylphiel."

Sylphiel smiled and let out a sigh of relief. She had been worried that the fake wouldn't be good enough. Ordinarily for a job such as this Sylphiel would have taken more time then she was given. Sylphiel was a bit of perfectionist.

With the fake deemed a success Lina took the others into the hidden room within the room where they could view what was going on. The room Lina had chosen for the trap was set up like a typical interrogation room in a police station. It was a simple room with one wall having a large two way mirror covering almost the whole thing. Lina had her brother set up a safe in the middle of the room sitting on a pedestal.

"Why do you have an interrogation room in your school?" Zelgadis wondered in confusion.

"Oh don't act like you don't have one at yours too." Lina exclaimed while rolling her eyes.

Zelgadis figured that the room was for the students studying criminology. Or at least that's what he hoped it was for.


	26. Chapter Twenty Five

_Author's Notes: This was written kinda last minute (been having a bad week for writing) so I was only able to do a real quick proof read. If I missed some stuff then I'm sorry._

**Ruins Raiders**

Chapter Twenty-Five, Feelings

By Relm

While Gavin worked on the security systems the others sat around discussing what the plans were.

"Shouldn't we be calling the police?" Amelia wondered out loud as she looked through the two way mirror at Gavin in the other room. Even though she was supposed to have her mind solely on the eyes she was having trouble keeping her complete focus in check.

"We will but not right now." Lina decided. "We're not even finish setting things up so there's no real point in calling the cops. Even still they aren't exactly going to do anything until we have proof or probable cause to arrest someone. Which is why Gavin is setting up those hidden cameras. At the very least if the crooks get away we'll have them on video."

"Still couldn't you insist they send a cop car or two over just in case?" Amelia argued. A part of her worried that the thieves could be armed and dangerous.

Lina was quick to shake her head at that. "If they send a car that would most likely scare off the thieves. And we want them to steal the fake, that's the point."

"What about undercover cops?"

Lina rolled her eyes. She understood that Amelia was young and not used to dealing with seedy characters but it was annoying Lina a little. Especially when it was clear that Amelia had a bit of an inflated opinion of the police's time and resources were. "Contrary to popular beliefs cops do not sit around all day eating donuts and drinking coffee. They have jobs to do and a certain amount of precious resources to divide up. I wouldn't feel right about demanding all their extra man power when it could be used for more important things like catching murderers or drug dealers. I'll let them know what the situation is but I'm not going to demand anything." Truthfully Lina didn't want to call them at all. She was a bit of stubborn person and preferred to do things herself.

That retort shut Amelia up.

"We're not even going to be in that room anyway right?" Sylphiel asked while pointing to the room that Gavin and the safe was in.

"We'll be in this room monitoring what's going on." Lina explained. "If we're lucky the fish will bite right away and we'll net those crooks and expose all their plans."

"They might not strike right away." Zelgadis reminded her. "It could take hours before they do anything."

Sylphiel frowned in worry. "I've been up since early this morning! I won't be able to stay awake the whole night. In fact I'm already sleepy." She admitted trying to fight off a yawn.

"Zel and I have been doing some pretty late nights so at the very least we should be able to stay awake. But maybe you should do a coffee run so we have it just in case." Lina suggested.

"Zel?" Both Sylphiel and Amelia repeated.

Lina felt her face go hot with embarrassment. "It's just a stupid nickname! Anybody could call him that!" Lina huffed defensively.

"No one at work calls Mister Zelgadis that. It's either Mister Zelgadis, Zelgadis or Professor Greywars." Amelia piped up.

"Oh shut up! For that you can go with Sylphiel to get the coffee!" Lina barked at the younger girl. "And Sylphiel don't let her out of your sight."

"Alright Miss Lina." Sylphiel got up and left the room with Amelia following.

"I still don't know what my brother saw in her." Lina grumbled once her assistant and her brother's ex-girlfriend left the room.

"She can be a little high strung." Zelgadis admitted. "But she is genuinely a nice girl."

"Nice girls do no rip out of the hearts of nice guys." Lina reminded him. "So for the record I still don't like that girl."

"It could be worse... It could be her older sister with us rather than Amelia."

With that thought both Lina and Zelgadis shuddered.

"Okay that should be done." Gavin announced coming out of the interrogation room and into the room where Lina and Zelgadis were. He sat himself down at the table and started up his computers and hooking things up. "And there you have it, your own personal security circuit." Gavin tilted the screens so that Lina and Zelgadis could see.

What the professors saw on the various screens was security camera footage from several cameras from the safe room as well as around the school.

"God how many of these did you set up?" Lina exclaimed as she scanned through all the feeds.

"Well..." Gavin laughed nervously. "These aren't all... my cameras..."

Lina glared at her younger brother with suspicion. "Gavin?"

"Yes I could have set up cameras all over the school but that would have raised some suspicions. And since we don't know who the mole is in the school I had to be as low key about things as possible. Not that you gave me much time to set up anyway. So I kinda... did some... creative networking..."

"Did you re-wire the University's security camera system?" Lina face and voice was deadpan.

"No of course not. But I did do just a little bit of hacking." Gavin made a gesture with his hands to show just how little he did.

This did not impress Lina. "How can you do a little bit of hacking?"

"The University's security system is fine on their end I'm just also viewing the feed at the same time. I will change it back when we're done I promise."

"Well you better. Because last time I checked hacking is illegal."

"And since when do you are about doing things by the book? You've broke the law many times!" Gavin exclaimed.

"I didn't break the law; I just 'bent' the rules a little." Lina insisted defensively.

Gavin just rolled his eyes. "So where did Miss Sylphiel and... Amelia go?"

"They went to get coffee. Sylphiel is afraid she might not be able to stay awake." Lina explained. "So how are you feeling about... things... at the moment?"

"You mean how do I feel about being blindsided by my ex-girlfriend who I just found out is the daughter of the headmaster of your rival school? Oh just peachy." Gavin grumbled sarcastically.

"I am sorry about springing her on you like this. I wasn't expecting her to show up like she did." Lina apologized.

"I know. But tell me the truth Lina; am I just some loser who gets girls because they are using him?" Gavin let his head hit the table with a loud thud.

"I'm pretty sure she wasn't dating you because she was using you." Zelgadis interjected quickly. Though he couldn't be sure of what was going on in Amelia's mind he sincerely hoped she had real feelings for Gavin. Because then that would mean he could be free of Amelia and getting rid of attentions of one crazy Sailune sister and that appealed to him.

"Okay you're new so don't go and try and talk me out of my funk." Gavin exclaimed waving his finger. "It doesn't matter if it's nice gesture, I don't know you and it's weird."

Even though Gavin was clearly going through some pain Zelgadis couldn't help but chuckle a little bit. It was short lived chuckle as Lina jabbed him in the ribs.

"You know what Gav it doesn't matter if she was using you or not, you're a great guy who will make some woman happy in the future." Lina tried to assure her little brother.

"Nice guys always finish last." Gavin grumbled letting his head hit the table again.

"Don't I know it." Zelgadis mumbled in agreement. "How did you meet Amelia anyway?"

Gavin looked up from the table and donned a reflective look on his face. "I met her at a restaurant. I was waiting for a table and so was she. And the hostess sat us together thinking we were a couple. When we told them we weren't they said that one of us would have to wait an extra 20 minutes for another table. I was going to be the gentlemen and tell Amelia it was okay for her to take the table, that I was fine with waiting. But she insisted we eat together. And we did."

"Sounds like a plot line from one of those cheesy romantic comedies." Zelgadis observed.

"It kinda was. It was perfect, too perfect. I should have known things were going to fall to pieces. Not that I know why. She just dumped out of the blue." Gavin sighed heavily feeling an invisible weight on his shoulders.

"Maybe things were getting too intense for her and she had to take a step back. You didn't tell her you loved her did you?"

"Oh god no, I wouldn't do that it was too soon in the relationship. But I did love her... I do love her..." Gavin sighed once more.

Zelgadis put a reassuring hand on Gavin's shoulder. "Hang in there buddy I'm sure she'll change her mind and realize what she's missing."

"I pray every day she will."

Lina rolled her eyes at the pathetic display of male bonding in the room. "So how are people reacting to the 'news' of the third eye on the net?" She asked Gavin in hopes to snap him out of his self pity and change the subject.

Gavin lifted his head up and gave a sideways glance to one of his computers. "Well how about we check the message boards?" He changed the display on one of the screens to show an internet browser instead of the camera feed. "Wow... looks like they are buying it on our message board. There's like twenty more threads about the eye than the one I posted earlier."

"What about the East Rixx message board?" Lina asked looking over his shoulder.

"Let me see... Wow it's over there too. Not as many threads but the word is out there..." Gavin trailed off as he read through some of the posts on the board. It made him frown in puzzlement as he stared at Professor Zelgadis Greywars. "Are you dating my sister to try and sleep with her male assistant Mister Gourry?"

Zelgadis' eyes widened in rage. "I am not GAY!"

"There's nothing wrong with being gay." Lina concluded with Gavin nodding in agreement.

"I know that! I'm not trying to sleep with anyone! Those stupid comments are from my stupid idiot assistant and are completely untrue!" Zelgadis almost growled in frustration.

"So where exactly were you staying Lina this whole time? Because I seem to recall when I did the grocery drop off a man that looks an awful like Professor Greywars here was the one that picked everything up." Gavin looked at his sister with a questioning stare.

"I was staying with Zelgadis." Lina admitted.

Gavin looked back at Zelgadis. "Are you sure you weren't trying to sleep with my sister?"

"If I was I would have." Zelgadis almost growled out without thinking it through.

"Excuse me?" Lina exclaimed in disgust. "So if you wanted to sleep with me you 'would' have?"

"Alright that came out somewhat wrong." Zelgadis admitted with a very scare smile gracing his lips.

"You're damned right it came out wrong!"

"What I meant was... If I was interested in pursuing something in 'that' nature I would have well um... I mean you would have... I... ah..." Zelgadis stammered nervously.

"Keep talking and you won't live to finish that sentence!" Lina threatened him with her hand up in an angry fist.

Forget the thieves, there was nothing scarier and worth calling the police for than an angry Lina Inverse.


	27. Chapter Twenty Six

**Ruins Raiders**

Chapter Twenty-Six, Sleepies

By Relm

Everything was set for the trap so all that was left to do was wait.

Sylphiel, Amelia, Lina, Gavin and Zelgadis were all sitting around in the viewing room drinking coffee. Nothing had happened so far and it was shaping up to be one boring evening.

Zelgadis drank the coffee in his hands but he definitely didn't enjoy it. He didn't voice his dislike of the beverage but the expression on his face said it all.

"If you don't like it then stop drinking it!" Lina barked at him.

"I never said I didn't like it." Zelgadis quickly countered.

"You're making a stupid face every time you sip from the damned cup."

"You gotta admit it's awful stuff." Zelgadis exclaimed putting the cup down. "It almost taste like it's... 'instant'." He shuddered as he said the vile word. If he had it his way instant coffee would be banned everywhere.

"It is." Sylphiel confirmed it for him.

Zelgadis shuddered some more as he thought about it. He drank 'instant' coffee. Bleh!

"Typical Zelgadis." Lina muttered under her breath.

"Excuse me what was that?" Zelgadis prompted her. "What are you implying?"

"That as usual you're being prissy and uptight. Everything has to be clean, neat and organized to your standards. But then you're OCD so I shouldn't be surprised." Lina commented drinking another sip of her own coffee. Yes it tasted back it wasn't as bad as Zelgadis was making it out to be.

"For the last and final time I am not OCD!" Zelgadis exclaimed.

Lina just rolled her eyes in reply.

"Yeah you guys really need to spend some time away from each other." Gavin commented with disgust. "It's almost like you guys are an old married couple with the way you fight."

Both Zelgadis and Lina looked at each other with a strange expression on their faces. They turned their heads to glare at Gavin as if he just insulted the two of them. It was very scary as they did it exactly at the same time with the exact same expression on their faces.

The sight of the two of them made Gavin unconsciously shudder.

"So is your other assistant going to be joining us too?" Zelgadis asked Lina changing the current subject.

"Gourry...? Hmm... I don't want to call him." Lina frowned in disgust.

"But Miss Lina, Mister Gourry would be helpful if there is a situation where muscle is needed." Sylphiel was quick to defend her colleague.

"Yes Gourry can be very helpful." Lina admitted sarcastically. "Why with his help I got the eye... smashed up into dust. Ultimately it's his fault we're in that mess. He just had to set off that booby trap."

"It was an accident Miss Lina. It could have happened to anybody." Again Sylphiel defended Gourry.

Lina looked to Sylphiel with bit of curiosity in her eyes. "You're quick to stick up for him. Has some things happened between the two of you while I've been away?"

Sylphiel's face quickly changed colour turning a bright red. "N-n-no! Why would you think that?"

"Well you're defending him." Lina pointed out.

"Because you're always mean to him!" Sylphiel counted.

"He's not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed."

"Mister Gourry is kind and chivalrous. It doesn't matter that he's not as focused as some people are." Yes Sylphiel was getting very defensive about Gourry.

"According to the message boards Mister Gourry dumped my sister for you Miss Sylphiel." Gavin interjected showing Sylphiel one of the rumour threads on the school message board on his computer screen.

"WHAT?" Sylphiel squeaked while staring at the board. She couldn't believe what she was seeing! "I am not dating Mister Gourry!"

"But that guy Gourry is in love with you right?" Zelgadis just had to add. They were all bored after all.

"He is not!" Sylphiel exclaimed. "He's just a nice guy who likes to do kind things for people! And why are you making such assumptions? I don't know you at all!"

"Gourry is in love with her." Lina confirmed for the masses.

"Do you love him back?" Amelia jumped into the conversation. She wasn't one to be a bad girl but Amelia did love her gossip and girl talk.

"I-I-I don't see why I should have to answer that question!" Sylphiel fumed. Her face as well as most of her body was flushed red with embarrassment.

"Awww! Poor Mister Gourry to be gripped with unrequited love!" Amelia swooned.

"Yeah that does suck." Gavin muttered under his breath. He hadn't meant to say it too loudly but it was just loud enough for everyone to hear.

Amelia felt the pangs of guilt at Gavin's comment. She wanted desperately to explain herself but it wasn't the time or place. Plus she didn't even know if Gavin would even want to listen to what she had to say.

The feel in the room had gone from playful jesting to uncomfortable silence in such a short period of time that it made everyone feel edgy.

Lina let out a sigh and got out her phone.

"Who are you calling Miss Lina?" Sylphiel wondered.

"Gourry. I'm going to get that dummy to stand guard outside the room." Lina explained.

"Won't that deter the thief?" Amelia wondered.

Lina was quick to shake her head. "Nope. I guarantee he's going to fall asleep right away. If anything that will help our cause. It will make it look like we're seriously protecting something and Gourry is just dropping the ball as usual." She let it ring over and over waiting for Gourry to pick up. It wasn't uncommon for Gourry to take a long time to answer the phone. Usually the only person he raced to answer for was Sylphiel.

"_Hello?" _Gourry finally answered.

"About time! Listen, I need you to come to the university pronto. We need someone to stand guard outside a door."

"_Aww... But Lina I'm pretty tired... I don't think I could stay awake for too long doing something boring like standing watch." _Gourry whined.

"That's fine. We'll need you to fall asleep."

Gourry was quiet on his end for moment. Perhaps he wasn't sure if he heard her correctly.

"Gourry?" Lina prompted him.

"_You want me to fall asleep, while standing guard?"_ Gourry repeated to make sure that was what Lina said.

"Yes."

"_Okay... I guess I could do that... Is Sylphiel going to be there?"_

Lina rolled her eyes and looked at Sylphiel. "Yes Gourry, Sylphiel is going to be here."

"_Okay I'll be right there!" _Gourry announced happily while hanging up.

"So... what shall we do to kill the time?" Sylphiel timidly spoke trying to avert the conversation away from where it was likely to go after that last comment by Gourry on the phone. She had been embarrassed enough as it was.

"I've got a deck of cards." Lina held them up for all to see.

Gavin groaned. Playing cards usually meant gambling and he never wins against his sister.

...

Hours went by and so did several rounds of several different card games. At Gavin's request they weren't playing for money but that didn't stop Lina from trying to win as much as possible. They kept playing until Sylphiel was just too tired to stay awake. She fell asleep while playing a hand of poker and that ended that game.

Gourry too had fallen asleep in the hall. But he had already been asleep for a while. The moment he started standing watch even. This didn't surprise Lina and quite frankly she didn't care.

With Gourry and Sylphiel down for the count it was just Lina, Amelia, Zelgadis and Gavin awake. But as the night went on it was getting clear that Gavin and Amelia were starting to fight the case of the sleepies. It started off with a few yawns and then a head fall or two. Then it became very clear if they were going to win this losing battle they were going to have to send in some reinforcements.

"I guess I should go do a coffee run." Gavin exclaimed while yawning. "Otherwise I'm going to be asleep for sure. Should I wake Miss Sylphiel?"

Lina shook her head. "No let her sleep. If she fell asleep so easily after drinking the coffee earlier than I doubt she would do any better with another cup in her."

Gavin frowned. "Well... I don't know... where to get... the coffee." He admitted sheepishly.

"I know where to go!" Amelia offered just a tad too enthusiastically. Realizing just how over eager she sounded made her blush in embarrassment.

"Um... I'm sure I'll figure it out." Gavin muttered.

"No, you take her with you." Lina insisted.

Both Amelia and Gavin snapped their heads to look at Lina in confusion. Their eyes were as wide as saucers. "What?" They both said in unison.

"Gavin you take Amelia with you. The both of you are sleepy and going for a walk might help wake you up a bit." Lina rationalized. "Plus Gavin you tend to get lost a lot and I'm not allowed to trust Amelia on campus grounds alone. So it's best if you go together." Lina rationalized.

Foiled with seemingly perfect logic Gavin and Amelia left the room together.

"You didn't suggest it because it was the most logical thing to do." Zelgadis commented after the two left the room. "You just wanted them to be alone with each other so they can talk."

"Gavin deserves to have answers. I wouldn't be a good sister if I didn't want what was best for him." Lina insisted.

"Yeah he didn't look too happy about it. What if he doesn't like what she has to say? What if she rips out his heart again?"

"At least he'll know why."

"Somehow I don't think Gavin is going to see it that way." Zelgadis muttered.

"Shut up. He's not your brother so you have no say."

...

In the halls of North Rixx University things were very quiet. So quiet you could almost hear a pin drop. It was very unlikely anyone could stalk the halls and not be noticed. However that wasn't the case as a lone figure made his way through the University. He was not heard nor was he seen. This man wasn't a ghost but just really really sneaky. He was a man on a mission and there was no way he was going to get caught.

Catching sight of the slumbering blond guard made the sneaky man smile. This was going to be easy. Too easy.


	28. Chapter Twenty Seven

**Ruins Raiders**

Chapter Twenty-Seven, Balrick Ave

By Relm

The walk over to the coffee machines was a quiet one for Amelia and Gavin. Gavin wanted answers badly while Amelia desperately wanted to explain herself. But even then neither could think up the words to start the conversation. Talking seemed so painful.

So as they walked the only sounds that boomed through the halls were the small thuds of their shoes.

Gavin looked at Amelia from time to time when she wasn't aware. It hurt being with her like this. God he didn't know if he wanted to yell at her or kiss her. Eventually he decided on the former.

"Why did you do it? What did I do wrong?" Gavin eventually blurted out.

"Nothing!" Amelia was quick to answer; relieved that they could finally start this grossly needed conversation. "You did absolutely nothing wrong. You were perfect, there was nothing did or said that could have ever made me want to break up with you."

"Then why? Why did you? Clearly something must have been wrong with me! Or were you using me the whole time? Were you just dating me to get information on my sister?" He demanded very much afraid of the answer. He expected the usually song and dance of, it's not you it's me crap. The tears he didn't want to shed fell down his face showing just how upset he was.

Seeing Gavin like that broke Amelia's heart. "I wasn't using you, honest to god I wasn't!" Amelia insisted. Tears also fell down Amelia's face.

"Then why Amelia? Why did you rip my heart out for?"

Amelia tried to halt her tears by wiping her face. "You got to understand it was such a romantic night that evening I met you. It was perfect, you were perfect, it was everything you could have wanted in a chance meeting. I had no idea who you were or where you came from but I didn't care. You were the most amazing guy I had ever met."

"And when did that change?"

"It didn't. You still are."

Gavin wanted to bash his head against the wall. "Then why did you dump me for?"

"It's because of your sister." Amelia explained cryptically.

The tears on Gavin's face dried up revealing a combination of both confusion and anger. "Lina? What's Lina got to do with it? Was she mean to you? Or did you just not like her?"

Amelia shook her head. "No you don't understand. It wasn't until I went to meet your sister that realized who you were. That you were Lina Inverse's brother. There was no way my father would approve and I knew once you found out who I was you were going to figure I was using you and you'd dump me."

"So you thought it was kinder to dump me first without an explanation?" Gavin exclaimed.

"I realize it was stupid! But I didn't think it could work. I guess it was the cowardly way to go about it."

"Yes it was. You should have told me once you found out. In fact you should have told me right from the start who you were!"

"You didn't tell me who you were when you met me!"

"That's because I'm an _Inverse_! Do know how many people I have scared off by letting that little piece of information slip? I don't know how much you know about my family but Lina is probably one of the nicest and least scary out of the bunch! God my dad has been a murder suspect in the past!" Gavin exclaimed in exasperation.

Another lapse of silence fell on the two as they made their way to where the machines were.

"So where does that leave us?" Amelia asked quietly after they retrieved the coffee.

"That depends… are you asking me to forgive you and take you back?"

"What will I do about my Father?"

"Are you not a grown woman? If your Father loves you then he won't stand in the way of your happiness. Besides I have a feeling after this all over East Rixx and North Rixx won't be as big rivals as they once were." Gavin surmised.

"Does this mean you'll take me back?" Amelia looked to Gavin with hopeful eyes.

Gavin frowned. He wanted to say yes. He want nothing more than to throw the coffee in his hand on the floor and scoop Amelia up in his arms and never let her go. But he just couldn't bring himself to do that. Amelia had hurt him, hurt him bad. It had been his first real relationship as it was. "I'd like to say yes… but… I'll need some time to think about it."

Amelia nodded. She understood where Gavin was coming from. Even still she was still hopeful.

…

"They have been gone a long time…" Zelgadis commented looking at his watch.

"Yeah we're probably not going to get our coffee." Lina mused as she made a card castle.

"And that doesn't bother you one bit?"

Lina shook her head. "I'm not sleepy and they are. Plus having all that tension in the room wasn't doing us any good. If they can resolve their issues before they come back it will be better."

"Plus it's not they can do anything to help us when the thieves come." Zelgadis rationalized.

Lina nodded. It's true that they didn't really need Amelia and Gavin but what they needed to do was watching the computer screens.

…

He watched from down the hall at the slumbering guard. He smiled; this was going to be easy. As he moved through the halls he saw all the cameras. Though he himself didn't care if his face ended up on camera his boss did. With each section he passed the man disrupted the feeds. Anyone looking at the camera feeds would have noticed the cameras were no longer working. The man could have worried about the guards at the University Security office but he was aware they were all taking a nap at the moment care of some nicely aimed tranquilizer darts. The man had expected to have to tranq the blond in the hall but Professor Lina Inverse's assistant already took care of that himself. Still for good measure the man shot at dart at Gourry just to make sure he stayed asleep.

Quietly the man snuck into the hall and stood right over the sleeping Gourry. With a smirk the man went to open the door Gourry was supposed to be guarding. The man didn't have to worry about things like locked door. No he didn't need to be a master lock picker. Because this man had a master set of keys at his disposal.

...

Lina let out a yawn as she stretched in her chair. She was bored from doing nothing and not having her coffee for her to drink she was really starting to feel it.

Zelgadis whom didn't even finish his coffee from earlier was very much tempted to finish the foul stuff. He too was getting really sleeping and all of Lina's yawning wasn't helping. "Could you stop doing that?" Zelgadis exclaimed after he finished yawning himself.

"Doing what?"

"You're making me yawn with all you're damned yawning!"

Lina yawned again. "I can't help it! I'm sleepy."

"We've stayed up longer than this the past few days!" Zelgadis protested.

"Yeah but only because we lost track of time because we were doing stuff! Maybe all the long nights are finally catching up with me."

"Perhaps one of us should go see what's keeping Amelia and Gavin with the coffee." Zelgadis suggested.

Lina was quick to shake her head. "No we can't do that! We have to keep watch to make sure we catch the crooks when they try to steal the eye." Lina insisted.

At that moment Zelgadis looked to the very room they were supposed to be watching and noticed one thing...

The safe was hanging open.

"Lina..." Zelgadis said while pointing at the room beyond the two way mirror.

Lina turned her head and gasped in surprise. The thieves had already been there? "What the hell? They were already here?"

"And the camera feeds are gone." Zelgadis pointed to Gavin's computer monitor that showed white fuzzy snow for all the camera feeds.

"The guards should have reacted to that!" Lina sneered.

Sylphiel whom had been sleeping woke up with all the yelling from Lina. "Huh? What happened?"

"We've been robbed." Lina told her.

"Hey we're back with the coffee." Gavin announced coming back into the room with Amelia in tow.

"And a little too late for that!" Lina spat out.

Gavin looked to the 'vault' room and then to his computer security system. "Damn!" Gavin right into action trying to get the camera feeds back up while also turning on the tracking system. "Looks like he disabled the cameras but doesn't know about the tracker." He handed Lina the portable system bleeping away where their 'eye' was heading.

"Gavin keep tracking the eye on your end. Sylphiel call the police. Zel and I are going to tail the bastard!" Lina grabbed Zelgadis by the arm to drag him off when Amelia protested.

"Miss Lina you can't do that! What if it's dangerous?"

"That's why I'm taking Zel with me. Besides we're just following that's all. Zel you take the device and give me the keys and let's go after those bastards!" Lina exclaimed with much gusto.

"No, you're tracking I'm driving." Zelgadis corrected her. "I am may be tired but I'm not stupid."

Lina frowned in disgust. "Fine let's just go already!"

...

It was hard to tell just how long ago the fake eye had been taken but Lina and Zelgadis were going to waste no time. They rushed out of the school and into the parking lot. Having a jaguar at your disposal was pretty handy in situations like this.

"Drive! Drive! DRIVE!" Lina yelled in excitement.

"Okay you're getting a little crazy!" Zelgadis exclaimed with wide eyes as he started up the engine.

"Go faster!" Lina barked at him.

"Yeah giving you the keys would have been a bad idea..." Zelgadis mumbled.

"I heard that! Now turn left on Drogan street."

"Anyone ever told you you're bossy?"

Lina just shook her head and continued to watch the little portable device.

Their target seemed to zig zag all around town with no clear destination in mind. Gavin's little portable radar might have been good for tracking what direction their target was heading at that moment but it did little for seeing the big picture. Like as in what possible place was the final destination of their thief?

"Gah! I have no idea where this idiot is going! It's like he knows we're following him!" Lina growled in frustration.

"Maybe he does. Or maybe he's just doing this just in case someone is following him. These guys managed to already steal two eyes and not get caught so they must be pretty sneaky."

"That's probably the case. I'm going to call my brother to see if he can figure out where our target is headed." Lina pulled out her phone and dialled her brother's cell while putting it on speaker phone.

"_Okay__police__are__aware__of__the__situation__but__they__are__only__sending__one__police__car__to__check__things__out.__" _Gavin didn't even bother to properly answer his phone. He knew it was Lina after all. _"__And__Miss__Sylphiel__didn__'__t__tell__them__you__two__are__going__after__them.__Though__they__kinda__figured__it__out__and__ordered__her__to__tell__you__guys__not__to__follow__them.__" _

"Ha! Yeah right! Like I would do that!" Lina chuckled.

"_Also Miss Sylphiel went to check on Mister Gourry and the security camera guards. They've all been hit with tranquilizer darts but it seems like they are fine." _

"Are you getting them medical attention?"

"_Yeah, an ambulance is on the way."_

"Did you get anything off the security cameras?"

"_Nope. I'm still going through the footage. This guy sure knew what he was doing."_

"Take a break from that and look at the tracker. Where the hell do you think he's going?"

"_Well if I was going to make a guess given from where he's already been it's going to be one of the warehouses on Balrick Avenue." _

"What? We've gone around Balrick like four times already!" Lina exclaimed in exasperation.

"_Exactly. He's circling around weaving without going to where he's intending to go. Balrick Avenue is the only street he hasn't actually driven on. That's where he's going I'll bet. But that's just my guess."_

"Thanks Gav, keep me posted." Lina hung up her phone and sighed. "So what do you think? We keep following this guy in circles or trust my brother's judgement and wait on Balrick?"

Zelgadis smiled a half smile before sharply turning. "I say Balrick all the way."


	29. Chapter Twenty Eight

**Ruins Raiders**

Chapter Twenty-Eight, Busted

By Relm

Lina and Zelgadis impatiently waited for their target to come to down Balrick Avenue so they could figure out his final destination. If Gavin was correct the thief's 'hideout' was on this particular street. However it was taking a long time for the car to arrive which was making both Lina and Zelgadis nervous.

"Where the hell is that guy?" Lina grumbled looking between the tracking device and road.

"He could be a she you know." Zelgadis corrected her.

"Okay fine where the hell is that crook?"

"You have the tracker so you should know." Zelgadis pointed out.

"That's not what I meant! I mean why hasn't the thief shown up yet?" Lina growled in frustration. She hated waiting and Zelgadis wasn't helping by being a smartass.

"We're only assuming the thief will come by here because of what your brother suggested. He could be wrong."

Lina glared at Zelgadis. She really wanted to hit him right now. "If you didn't think Gavin was right then why did you drive us here?"

"I never said I thought Gavin was wrong. I was just pointing out that he could be and that's why the thief hasn't shown up yet." Zelgadis explained.

"Here's a thought, why don't you keep your annoying observations to yourself?" Lina spat out.

"Then stop grumbling out pointless questions." Zelgadis mumbled. Yes the two of them really did sound like an old married couple.

"I'm venting, aren't I allowed to vent?" Lina growled in frustration.

"Lina I don't think that matters right now." Zelgadis commented in an odd voice.

"Oh so now what I say now doesn't matter?" She was really getting mad at him now. How dare he dismiss her like that!

"Really Lina this isn't the time-"

"Not the time! Why I-" Lina was going to yell out some choice words when she noticed why Zelgadis was dismissing her. Standing outside the jaguar they were sitting in was a man holding a gun.

And it was pointing right at them.

...

Back in the safe room at the University Sylphiel, Amelia and Gavin going over camera footage. Gourry and the guards that got hit by tranquilizer darts had already been taken to the hospital but the paramedics assured Sylphiel and company that they were going to be fine.

"I hope Miss Lina and Mister Zelgadis are okay." Sylphiel mumbled in a worried voice as she sipped her coffee. Since being woken up with all the commotion there was no way she was going to go to back to sleep any time soon.

"I'm sure they'll be okay." Amelia tried to reassure her. "Mister Zelgadis is the most careful man I know. He always asses the risk before jumping into any dangerous situation."

Right away Sylphiel and Gavin shared a look of sheer panic.

Amelia caught sight of this shared look and frowned in confusion. "What's wrong?"

"Miss Lina is impulsive." Sylphiel explained. "She never thinks before doing something and always jumps into a dangerous situation headfirst."

"But Lina is with Zelgadis." Gavin rationalized. "So maybe she'll be careful after all."

Even though that was a comforting idea they knew it wasn't likely. So right away Gavin tried calling his sister.

The phone rang several times but Lina failed to pick up on her end.

"She's not answering!" Gavin panicked.

"Maybe Miss Lina and Mister Zelgadis are sneaking around the thieves' hideout so she put her cell on silent." Amelia suggested.

That also seemed like a very plausible scenario that should have abated some of Gavin's fear. However that wasn't the case.

"What if she didn't? What if she's being tortured or killed right at this moment?" Gavin exclaimed trying to call Lina over and over again.

"Try texting her. If she has her phone on silent because she can't talk she might respond via text message." Sylphiel suggested.

"Right!" Gavin nodded very enthusiastically. He texted, _'__Lina__u__ok?__' _and waited for a response.

Everyone in the room waited and watched Gavin's cell phone for a response. But after fifteen minutes it became apparent that Lina wasn't going to message her brother back.

"She's dead, she must be dead!" Gavin cried out in panicked horror.

"Gavin please calm down, maybe Miss Lina isn't responding to your text message is because she isn't aware she got one. If her phone is on silent and in her pocket she won't know she got a message anyway." Sylphiel tried to reassure Gavin but she was aware this was in vain. Gavin was already too worked up and Sylphiel knew her voice wasn't as calming as it should be. That being because she herself was getting worried too and that worry was spilling over into her voice. It was hard to convince someone of something that you yourself didn't believe.

"I'm going to try Mister Zelgadis' cell." Amelia declared pulling out her own phone.

The phone rang and rang but just like Lina's cell Zelgadis failed to answer his.

"Well?" Gavin prompted her with hope brimming in his eyes.

All Amelia could do was shake her head.

"I'm calling the police!" Gavin declared.

...

News had started to spread about the potential theft of the third eye of Trinibee and several camera vans had pulled up in front of North Rixx University. With most of the guards unconscious at the hospital the remaining few and the responding police officers opted to completely lock down the whole the university. All the doors were locked preventing anyone from getting in the school. Only certain people would be allowed in but none of the news crews. It was complete pandemonium as people kept knocking on the door waving their cameras and microphones around hoping to get the attention of the guards. The guards ignored this as they had no intention of giving any such statement.

It was doubtful that anyone was going to get into the university at that late hour but that didn't deter the efforts of one woman. Dressed in a brown pantsuit and black overcoat this woman snuck around to the back of the school to use one of the doors there. Of course these and all the other doors had been locked so it didn't seem like there was any point to even try and open one. This was why all the reporters were at the front, because that's where the guards where. If they were going to get in they would have to get the guards to let them in. So bother sneaking around the back? Well this woman wasn't going to be doing any sneaking.

The woman in the brown pantsuit fished around her purse to produce a very old looking key. It didn't seem like it was anything special but that was because the North Rixx University insignia had worn off. She tried the old key and on the door and it unlocked with a load click. Right away the woman bolted into the school locking the door behind her. She didn't want to let anyone else in after all.

Sneaking quietly through the halls the woman finally got to her destination. She almost laughed at the notion of an interrogation study room being used as a safe room but instead remained quiet.

Inside the safe room Gavin was still panicking while Amelia and Sylphiel were trying to calm him down.

"Why aren't they here yet? I called the police and they said they would send another officer over to see us!" Gavin exclaimed as he paced around the room.

"Gavin you just talked to them on the phone. You've got to give them some time. And please sit down." Sylphiel tried to coax him back into his chair.

"Sit down? Sit down? My sister could be dead somewhere and you want me to SIT DOWN?" Gavin screamed.

"Please Gavin getting all worked up isn't helping." Amelia pleaded with him.

"You know what's not helping? Sitting around doing nothing! There are police officers still here in the building and I'm going to go find one of them!" Gavin declared as he marched over to the door. Standing on the other side of it he found a bewildered petite woman with red hair dressed in a brown pantsuit.

The woman looked at Gavin with her mouth hanging open slightly. She was surprised and not sure what to say.

"Are you the police officer that's responding to my call?" Gavin was quick to question the strange woman.

This threw off the woman more. 'Police officer? Now why would he think that?' But then it dawned on the woman. The only people the guards and police were letting in were other officers and paramedics. So who else would he think she was? "Yes. I'm Officer Gevert."

Gavin didn't even bother asking for credentials he just let the woman in. "Okay here's the problem. My sister and a professor from another school went after the thieves that stole our eye. I've been in contact with them until just a little while ago. She's not answering her phone and neither is the other professor. I'm afraid something horrible has happened." Gavin said all that without so much as one breathe talking very fast.

"She shouldn't have gone after them." Officer Gevert shook her head in obvious disapproval. "I know anyone getting all three eyes in one place is a bad thing but it's nothing she should have risked her life for."

"Oh that wasn't the real third eye." Sylphiel piped up. "It was a fake."

"A fake?" Officer Gevert prompted them in confusion.

"Yeah, we already told you people. We set up a fake to get stolen so we could track where it was being taken and who was taking it. The real third eye is safe." Gavin explained.

"Where is the real third eye?"

"Well it's... um... I don't know." Gavin admitted. "Lina put it someplace safe. I'm sure of it."

"As long as it's anywhere but with her at the moment." Officer Gevert mused. "Now where was your sister heading when you last talked to her?"

...

Lina felt groggy as she slowly came to. She didn't quite remember what happened but she was sure from the way her head felt at that moment that whatever it was involved chloroform. "What happened?" She grumbled trying to shake off the fogginess.

"Nothing good that's for sure." Zelgadis mumbled under his breath.

Lina blinked in confusion at Zelgadis' comment. She tried to rub her eyes but she discovered she was tied up. "What the hell?"

"Glad to see you're finally awake Professor Inverse." A female voice sounded catching Lina's attention.

Lina snapped her head to the source of the high and mighty female voice. What Lina found was a woman dressed completely in black with black spiky shoulder length hair to match. Her lipstick was dark and her skin pale making her almost look like she was trying to look gothic. The woman smiled at Lina smugly. Obvious this woman felt as high and mighty as her voice sounded. "Who the hell are you?" Lina snapped in irritation. "And why am I tied up for?"

This retort took some of the air out of the woman's sails. "Who am I? You mean to tell me you have absolutely no idea who I am?"

Lina rolled her eyes. "Oh come on. I'm a busy person do you think I have the time or the memory to remember every little insignificant nothing researcher/anthropologist? You people are a dime a dozen."

This made the woman's blood boil. "How dare you! I'm not some no nothing researcher!"

"Lina not a good idea to piss off the woman holding us hostage." Zelgadis sneered at Lina just loud enough for only Lina to hear.

"Hey she's the one acting like a freakin' prima donna when she doesn't have the manners to introduce herself." Lina huffed. "Talk about rude! It's bad enough the bitch had us knocked out unconscious but to not even say who the hell she is or why she's tied up is just plain inconsiderate. I tell yeah, these low life lackeys have no class at all."

"Low lever lackey?" The woman fumed. "I am not a lackey! I'm the boss!" She screamed at Lina.

"Then tell us who you are." Lina demanded.

"That's Eris." Zelgadis answered.

"Who?" Lina asked in confusion. Her brain was still a little bit foggy.

"Eris, Rezo's last assistant before he died." Zelgadis clarified.

"Rezo is not dead!" Eris declared. "He is just waiting... to rise again!"

"Great this one is a real loonytoon." Lina mumbled.

"Behold!" Eris pulled a sheet off a nearby structure revealing a glass case with all kinds of wires and pumps leading into the body inside. The seemingly dead form of Rezo Red.


	30. Chapter Twenty Nine

**Ruins Raiders**

Chapter Twenty-Nine, All Eyes on Rezo

By Relm

"What the hell...?" Lina exclaimed in pure shock.

Zelgadis was as equally shocked as he looked at the supposedly dead form of his great-grandfather laying in a machine before him. "How...? Why...? What are you trying to do?"

"I'm not trying to do anything. What I'm doing is bringing back the greatest mind this world has ever known. And it's all thanks to the two of you." Eris let out a cackle. "Can't say I'll have much use for you two afterwards but at least you've served your purpose."

"What are you going to do with us?" Lina demanded trying to wiggle her hands free of their bonds. But it was futile as all it ended up doing was cutting into her wrists more.

"Oh kill you of course. But I thought the very least I could do is let you see how I'm going to put your hard work to use." Eris pulled out a little wooden box and opened it up. Inside was an oval shaped amber gem that sparkled in the dim light of the warehouse.

"That's the first eye of Trinibee." Zelgadis observed.

"Yes that's right it is. You know my dear Rezo found this very eye. I remember all the stories he told me about it. How thrilling it was to finally translate that ancient dead language and get enough clues to find the temple the eye was located in. He always hated that he had to give the eye up to the museum." Eris's eyes were far away and dreamy as she thought back to her time with the famous professor.

"You know that eye didn't belong to him. Nor was he the only one that found it." Lina reminded her with just a tinge of annoyance tainting her voice.

"Nora Lockeheart was just a sad little puppy dog following my dear Rezo around. She had no brains and did nothing to help find the eye but still she stole half the credit from Rezo. My dear Rezo had been so blinded by her looks that he didn't see her for what she really was." Eris spat out with venom in her voice.

"She wasn't just a doe eyed girl!" Lina insisted. "Nora Lockeheart is a smart brilliant woman! Rezo would have never found the eye if it hadn't been for her. It was her that managed to translate the ancient texts not Rezo!"

"That's a lie!" Eris screamed. "Nora was as much as a fraud as her fake feelings for him! She made him think she loved him but she ran. How could anyone run for the person they love most?"

"Because he was trying to kill her! The eye made him crazy! And I think it's done the same to you." Lina yelled back.

"Oh I'm not crazy." Eris let out a shrilly laugh. "I know exactly what I'm doing. Which is exactly what my dear Rezo wanted."

"And what did my great-grandfather want?" Zelgadis prompted her. He figured the more he kept her talking the more likely it would be that someone would send help. Lina's brother knew where they were and was probably expecting them to check in with him. And when him and Lina didn't it would alert Gavin that there was something wrong. Or at least that's what Zelgadis hoped.

"What any person wants, to cheat death. It took me ten years to get to this point. I had to go through so many ordeals and painstaking tasks to prepare Rezo for his glorious resurrection! And now that I have all three eyes I can finally do it, I can bring back my love to life!" Eris cackled holding up the first eye of Trinibee.

Lina leaned in and whispered to Zelgadis, "So when did her and Dr. Frankenstein trade places?"

"You're actually cracking jokes right now?" Zelgadis hissed at her clearly not impressed. "Especially when she's planning on killing us?"

"Isn't that more of a reason to try and lighten the mood?" Lina said sheepishly.

Zelgadis just shook his head and returned his attentions back to Eris. "And how exactly are you going to bring Rezo back?"

"With the three eyes of Trinibee of course. When the three eyes are together they can do great things. Bad things too. Deliciously bad, terrible things. And because of the two of you the three eyes get to be together once more." Eris snapped her fingers and two men appeared each holding boxes in their hands. What was really strange about these two was that they looked exactly alike.

"Dang... we really were dealing with evil triplets..." Lina mumbled not believing her eyes.

"Oh? You mean the Vrumagens?" Eris let out yet another laugh. "They aren't triplets, they aren't even more than one person. Just an empty vessel I copied four times. There are five of them in total, all bound to me and will do whatever thing I command."

"How did you manage to do that?" Lina wondered genuinely impressed and confused. Sure human cloning was theoretically possible but she had no idea that anyone much less an ancient studies professor could manage to do it. It was more like science fiction than science fact.

"And you called me the rookie. Rezo had done much extensive research on the first eye. And the people that protected it had many different rituals they used to worship and guard it. Rezo never published all his findings but he did let me read them. And with it I made my little Vrumagens. They are practically mindless creatures but they serve my purposes." Eris gloated before glaring at her clones. "Now go away. Guard the entrances."

The two Vrumagens did as they were told and left Eris alone with her captives.

"You know I was surprised when I found out that a professor from East Rixx found an eye before North Rixx. My little spies informed me on your individual progress and it did seem like you Professor Inverse was further ahead of Rezo's little great-grandson. So how did he manage to find the second eye before you found the third?" Eris taunted Lina.

Lina's first reaction was to blurt out that she did find the third eye before Zelgadis found the second. She didn't like the fact that she was being insulted like that. But Lina had to bite her tongue. If she blurted out what she wanted to say then Eris would know that the third 'eye' she had stolen wasn't the real one. "Lucky I guess?" Lina said through gritted teeth.

"Oh I'm sure it's not luck. Zelgadis is my dear Rezo's great-grandson after all. And you know how the saying goes, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree." Eris gloated.

Zelgadis also had something he wanted to blurt out at that moment but instead he too chose to keep his mouth shut. Explaining why he wanted to be nothing like Rezo the crazy lunatic professor when being held captive by someone in love with said professor was never a good idea.

Eris opened up the other two boxes to reveal the second eye stolen from East Rixx and the third 'eye' stolen from North Rixx. The second eye glimmered with as much colour as the first eye did but that wasn't the case with the supposed third eye. The fake though looked pretty was just a dull replica when next to the real deal. Though obvious that the eye was a fake Eris was too delusional with illusions of grandeur and power to see it.

Zelgadis leaned over to Lina and whispered, "Eris could do a lot of terrible things if she had all three eyes. It's a good thing that we don't have the real third eye here with us."

"Yeah... sure... because it's safe somewhere... that isn't here..." Lina let out a sheepish, nervous laugh.

Zelgadis glared at Lina in disbelief. "Lina tell me the eye isn't here with you, and it's someplace safe and far away!" He hissed.

"It's not with me, it's safe in a faraway place." Lina repeated with absolutely no honesty to her voice.

"You're lying!"

"I was just doing what you told me to!"

"Well where the hell is it?" Zelgadis demanded.

"It's in my pocket." Lina whined in a low voice.

"What the hell is it doing there for?"

"Well were chasing down the thieves so we could get back the second eye and fix the third! Obviously we were going to need the third eye with us in order to fix it." Lina exclaimed in not so convincing argument.

"We could have brought the second eye back to the school and fix the third eye there! Why the hell did you have to bring it with you for?"

"I didn't want anyone to take it so I've been keeping it with me. It's the only way I can know for sure that it's safe." Lina rationalized.

"Gah!" Zelgadis growled.

"What are the two of you talking about?" Eris demanded stomping her way over to them her heels clicking loudly on the cement floor. "The two of you are not going to get out of this place alive so there's no point plotting an escape plan." She warned them before going back to her little prizes. "All I need to do is put the three eyes together over Rezo and he'll rise again!"

Both Zelgadis and Lina held their breath as they watched Eris moved the two true eyes of Trinibee and the fake one above the encased seemingly dead form of Rezo Red.

The first and second eyes started to glow once they touched each other. They flashed in a pattern that made one think of a pulse of a heartbeat. But the 'third eye' didn't glow like the others. All it did was dance around the machine before exploding into a billion pieces.

Eris eyes were as wide as saucers as she just stood there staring at the mess the 'third eye' had made. There was blue crystalline dust everywhere. She snapped her head back to glare at Lina before storming over to her. "What the hell just happened?" Her voice was loud and as thundering as the clicking of her heels.

"It looks like you just destroyed the third eye." Lina half joked.

Eris grabbed a fist full of Lina's wild red hair and twisted it so Lina's head was tilted upwards looking at Eris in the face. "You did this, I know you did! You rigged the eye so it would self destruct if it was used!"

"Or maybe you're just too stupid to realize that you did something wrong." Lina snapped not liking her hair being yanked on.

Even though the third eye wasn't among them the first and second eyes still continued to glow.

"GRAAAAAHHH!" Eris screamed before storming off back to her work area. She turned around with a gun in hand and pointed it at Lina. "I'm going to kill you for this! How dare you try and keep me away from my love!"

"I didn't do anything!" Lina yelled back. She should have pleaded for her life but Eris had already told her that she was going to get killed. So pleading not to be killed was pointless. Plus Lina was just a little bit pissed. "Like I would care about keeping you apart from your crazy lunatic obsession! Rezo is dead! And nothing is going to bring him back!"

"AAAAAAAHHHHH!" Eris screamed as she fired the gun into the ceiling. She pointed the gun back at Lina. "Shut up! He's not dead! He's alive!" She insisted.

"If he is alive it's only because those tubes and wires are keeping me him like that." Zelgadis rationalized. "If you really loved him you'd let him rest in peace."

"REZO IS NOT DEAD!" Eris screamed at the top of her lungs.

The eyes behind Eris glowed and flashed in much faster pace. The second eye in fact was glowing much brighter than it had been before and was outshining the first eye.

The bag of dust in Lina's pocket pulsed making the red headed professor believe it was her phone on vibrate. But as she looked down she saw the faint blue hue glowing through the fabric of her coat.

"What is that?" Eris demanded and stomping her way back over to Lina again.

Before the deranged raven haired woman could get near Lina the bag of dust flew out of Lina's pocket and flew over to the other two eyes. It just hung there in the air above them glowing just like they were. The bag melted and with a big flash of light the third eye of Trinibee was whole once more. It landed on the machine next to its counterparts.

"It worked." Lina mumbled in awe as she just stared blankly at what just happened.

"I knew it was a trick!" Eris declared. "But it looks like I still get what I wanted! However now I want something else too." She pointed the gun back on Lina.

"I thought you wanted me to see you bring Rezo back to life before you killed me!" Lina exclaimed feeling both pissed and mildly frightened.

"I was but you've angered and delayed me enough that I feel I must kill you now!" Eris tightened her grip around the gun as she squeezed the trigger.


	31. Chapter Thirty

**Ruins Raiders**

Chapter Thirty

By Relm

The sound of a gunshot was a deafening sound. Everything else is quiet in comparison. Even the thumping sounds of a heart beating. And it wasn't just the sounds that were silenced, time was slowed. As if everything in the world just stops at that one frightening moment.

A wordless silent scream, a look of sheer terror and a bullet flying through the air. All in terrible slow motion.

It is said when facing death you see your life flashing before your eyes. All Lina could see was the barrel of the gun and blue light.

She should have closed her eyes, any normal person would have but Lina's eyes were wide. She had faced the end of a gun many times before. Far too often did Lina encounter danger on her excursions so she rarely feared guns. She could get herself out of almost any serious situation. There was always a way to escape, get the upper hand or beat the enemy. Though that wasn't the reason why Lina's eyes were wide.

Lina had expected one of these days she would die on the job. But she never in a million years think it would happen in her own country. She always assumed it would be on a relic hunt in another continent.

Within a blink of an eye the bullet was at Lina's face. And that's just where it stayed.

"Huh?" Lina muttered as she looked on in wonder.

The bullet that was on route to hitting her right between the eyes was hanging mid air. It appeared to be frozen in time with blue light surrounding it.

The light was coming from behind Eris. It was the third eye of Trinibee. It too was suspended in the air and it floated over in front of Lina.

"How are you doing this?" Eris demanded. "You're supposed to die!"

"I don't know..." Lina mumbled not sure what was going on herself.

"GRAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Eris screamed firing the gun two more times at Lina. Just like the first one the other two just hung there in the air before falling to the ground lifelessly.

"I don't think the third eye wants to you to shoot Lina." Zelgadis mused somewhat amazed by what was going on.

"Shut up!" Eris screamed and fired the gun at Zelgadis instead.

By now Eris' gun was significantly less threatening than it had been since the assistant originally whipped it out. But it wasn't the blue of light stopping the bullet that time. What stopped the bullet was a red light. The second eye floated over to Zelgadis.

"What the hell is going on here?" Eris screamed in frustration. Her mind was walking a very thin line and these events were pushing her over the limit. She had put herself under so much stress trying to get these eyes so she could bring back her Rezo that her mind had become so fragile. None of this was helping. She fired again randomly this time just wanting to hit something. Some of the bullets lodged into the walls but a few hit some of the steel beams causing them to ricochet around the room.

Though Eris should have been frightened by the stray bullets she didn't care. It wasn't until one of those bullets hit the control panels of the chamber keeping Rezo 'alive' that Eris started to freak out.

There were hisses, crackles and pops as the machine made a spectacle. Clearly it didn't like having a bullet lodged in its controls. Steam escaped with a loud angry hiss as the machine buckled under the pressure.

"NOOOOOO!" Eris screamed as she realized what she had done. As Eris ran to try and fix the breaking machine it exploded. Smoke and flames erupted as broken pieces of pipe, glass and metal flew in every which direction.

Lina winced; her cheek was sliced by a piece of glass. The cut was shallow and only a small trickle of blood travelled down her face. Other small pieces of debris hit Lina but nothing else serious to draw blood. Considering all that was flying around Lina was relatively unhurt.

Zelgadis on the other hand hadn't been as lucky. A piece of pipe collided with Zelgadis' right should causing him to yelp in pain. If Zelgadis hadn't had his limbs bounded in place he likely would have gone flying backwards.

"Are you okay?" Lina asked while coughing.

"My shoulder hurts but I'll live. You?"

"Cuts and bruises. What about Miss Looney Tunes?"

They both tried to see through the smoke and fire but being tied up only allowed them to see so far.

"My... love..." Eris sobbed pathetically from the floor. She had her outstretched trying feebly to reach for where her Rezo had been kept in the machine. Eris coughed up blood for her trouble; a jagged piece of steal had impaled her right through her stomach from the explosion. The blood drained out of Eris quickly making a big pool of red around the woman dressed in black.

"She's alive..." Lina mumbled in amazement.

"Not for long." Zelgadis observed.

It was then that Lina looked around and saw the carnage that had occurred. There was debris everywhere! The only area that seemed clear was right in front of Lina and Zelgadis. It was like as though they had a shield that deflected most of the mess. "How did we not get killed?"

The glowing eyes answered that question for Lina as they blinked rapidly.

"Perhaps the eyes protect those who own them." Zelgadis suggested.

"But we don't own them. We only found them!" Lina protested.

"Well maybe in their 'eyes' it's the same thing to them. We were the first people to have physical contact with them in hundreds of years. It probably caused them to be connected to us. Otherwise I'm sure you would have been hit in the head with Eris' first shot." Zelgadis reminded her.

"But Rezo found the first eye, wouldn't it have protected him?" Lina wondered.

Both Lina and Zelgadis looked to the wreckage of the broken machine. Hovering above was the first eye in all its amber glowing glory. A figure rose from the smoke dressed in white and black. His whole body was bathed in the amber light as it stood there before Lina and Zelgadis amidst the wreckage. His purple hair like his clothing seemed perfectly in place with not a single mark or singe.

"It couldn't have worked? Could it...?" A small whisper escaped Lina's lips as she couldn't even believe what she was seeing.

"I think it did." Zelgadis also whispered not believing what he was seeing either.

The supposedly dead form of Rezo Red stood before the ruins raiders with a slight smile tugging on his lips. "At last! I have arisen!" He opened his eyelids revealing two empty sockets. There were no eyes for Rezo to look with.

"His eyes... where are his eyes...?" Lina wondered in horror.

"I lost them before of her." Rezo exclaimed bitterly but a smile still remained on his lips.

"You mean Eris?" Lina prompted him.

"Eris?" Rezo pondered the name as if it was something long ago. "No that woman is just a simple minded sheep." He concluded still not quite aware of his surroundings.

"My love... you can't... mean... that..." Eris choked out pathetically. Her voice was no more than a tortured whisper as her life was swiftly draining from her.

Rezo looked down to the source of the voice somewhat amused. "Oh she's here?" He couldn't see her (or anything else for that matter) but he knelt down to where he heard the voice. The smell of blood invaded his senses as he listened for her slowing ragged breaths. "Such a pathetic waste of a person but at least she served her purpose." He smiled wickedly.

"Rezo..." Eris cried out once more as her last breath escaped her lips.

Rezo let out a cackle; he was clearly satisfied with his former assistant's death.

"She loved you damnit!" Lina growled. "And this is how you treated her? She was dying!"

"And now she's dead." Rezo rose and carefully stepped over Eris' body as he approached Lina and Zelgadis. The first eye followed him hovering just over his head. "And who are you?" Rezo mused feeling some sort of familiarity in Lina's anger. "I know that my great-grandson Zelgadis is here but who are you?" He squinted as if to see better which was ludicrous as he had no eyes to see with.

However that changed very quickly as the three eyes of Trinibee responded. Both the second and the third eyes floated to Rezo as though he had beaconed them and occupied the sockets were Rezo lacked eyes of his own. The first eye also moved but the place it took wasn't an empty eye socket. Instead the first eye lodged itself in Rezo's forehead smack dab in the middle. The process looked so painful but Rezo didn't even flinch. When settled the first eye looked like it had made itself into a third eye on Rezo's forehead.

Rezo blinked all three of his eyes as he looked at Lina. The red hair was unmistakeable! In his mind there was only one person whose hair was as red and wild as her. "Nora..." He mumbled with a quivering lip. It was hard to see if it was sadness or fear that gripped Rezo at that moment.

Lina flinched but said nothing. This wasn't the first time someone had mistaken her for her great-grandmother.

As Rezo looked closer his mind cleared. "No Nora's eyes were blue. Yours are red... Who the hell are you?"

"Lina Inverse." She responded not telling him anything more on the subject. It was partly out of fear but mostly Lina didn't think it a good idea to tell Rezo that she was Nora's great-granddaughter. "What happened to your eyes?" She prompted him once more.

Zelgadis himself wondered that same question. He had always known his great-grandfather as a blind man but hadn't always been that way. Rezo had been known as many things to the world but being blind wasn't one of them. He hid the fact that he went blind so only few people were even aware of it. But Zelgadis had never dared to asked Rezo what had happened.

Rezo snorted. "It's all Nora's fault." He muttered recalling the painful memory. "She translated the text that found us the eye. But she failed to read out the warning about opening the box. Opening that box stole my eyes from me."

"So it had been cursed." Lina prompted him.

"Yes."

"Did she tell you to open the box? Or did you even wait till she was finished translating before you went ahead and did it?" Zelgadis questioned his great-grandfather. Nora had been well known for her linguistic skills. It didn't seem likely she would have stopped translating something until she had finished. And instructing someone to open something without having all the facts didn't seem like something she would do either.

"Shut up!" Rezo snarled at Zelgadis while holding his head. "It matters little now, I can see again! With the eyes of a god!" He held his hands out and balls of light and fire erupted from them. Seeing his power made him giddy with devilish delight.

"Great from Miss Looney-Tunes to Crazy God-Almighty. Can this day get any better?" Lina muttered bitterly.

Zelgadis glared at her. He didn't appreciate Lina cracking jokes before and he didn't like it any more now. "What are you planning on doing?"

"I am a god! I will do whatever I wish!" Rezo bellowed. He turned his attentions back onto Lina. "And to start I'll ask you again, who are you and why do you look like Nora?" He raised one hand to point at Lina. Bolts of electricity crackled around his fingers.

"Because she's my great-granddaughter." A voice answered Rezo's question.

Rezo looked to the source of the voice and gasped. It was a woman and she was dressed in a brown pantsuit which went well with her wild red hair. She was a petite woman almost elfish in her attributes making her appear to be very young while her cerulean blue said otherwise. They spoke for the age of the woman showing that she was definitely much older than she appeared. She had a satchel bag hanging on her shoulder that she gripped the strap so hard her knuckles were turning white. "Nora..." Rezo mumbled not believing what he was seeing.

"Yes Rezo it's me. It's been a long time." Nora said softly as she slowly walked over to them.

"You haven't aged a bit!" Rezo exclaimed feeling some of his old emotions bubbling back to the surface. Before finding the first eye Nora had been his whole world, and she was the last perfect thing she had seen before his sight had been robbed. He had wished to see again mostly so that he could see Nora's face once more. And now that the time came he was shocked to see that she looked exactly the same.

"Nor have you. But I'm sure it's the eye to blame. One which brings eternal youth, two that heals all wounds and three that holds great power." Nora repeated one of the glyphs she had translated long ago. "Together a god is born."

The happy nostalgic feeling Rezo had were pushed down and replaced with dark ones. "I am a god!" He announced.

"Rezo you have to stop this!" Nora pleaded. "The first eye was cursed! It did more than steal your sight, it stole your mind! You used to be a good man and I know he's still in there somewhere! This isn't how you're supposed to be!"

Rezo let out a dark laugh. "What I was supposed to be was together with you forever! But you ran."

"You tried to kill me." Nora said softly. She had tried to convince herself that it had just been the stress over losing his eyes and that he hadn't really changed. But the truth was Rezo hadn't been the same since they found the first eye.

Confusion started to muddle about in Rezo's brain. "You betrayed me!" He screamed at her though he wasn't sure it was the truth. His head hurt so much he just couldn't make sense of his thoughts or memories in his head.

"Rezo please stop this madness! The eyes are killing you!" Nora pleaded.

"SHUT UP!" Rezo screamed while clutching the side of his head in obvious pain. "You're just trying to confuse me! But you can't I'm a god! And you will pay for defying me!" Rezo held up his hand again pointing at Rezo with sparks of electricity surrounding his fingertips.


	32. Chapter Thirty One

**Ruins Raiders**

Chapter Thirty-one, The God of Trinibee

By Relm

If one were to stare down the angry rage of a god it would be likely that person would quiver with fear. Nora stood there before Rezo with electricity erupting from his hands but she didn't move a muscle. Anyone witnessing these events would assume that Nora was a fearless woman brave beyond normal mortals. The truth was that Nora was just much better at hiding her fear. She didn't want to be there, she didn't want to face Rezo in such a state. But she knew she had little choice. "Killing me won't change things." She said in a seemingly calm and quiet voice.

"It will give me great satisfaction!" Rezo announced with a grandiose manner fitting of a god.

"No it will make you feel empty and hollow. You will hate yourself for what you've done. Assuming that the eyes haven't completely stolen away all that was you." Nora stated with a still calm sounding voice.

"Shut up!" Rezo screamed at her while shooting a beam of electricity from his hands. It didn't hit Nora but it just barely whizzed to the side of her head.

"How much of you is still in there Rezo? Are you really that weak that you would let something control you so easily?" Nora taunted him. It was a dangerous gambit but at this point she needed to break his focus.

"I am in control!" He sneered at her. "This is what I want! I am a GOD!"

"A god? You're not a god! You're a puppet! And the eyes are pulling your strings!" Nora yelled back her knuckles still white from clutching the strap of her bag so tightly. "Remember who you are! Remember all the plans we had. We were going to travel the world and discover all of its hidden mysteries. The ruins of Talnek, the crypts of Mhels, the tomes Jelzombiquin... We had so many things still left to do. We were going to get married, settled down and have kids... Would you really throw away all those dreams for foolish power?"

"You would really talk of those things when it was you who betrayed me! You left me blind!" He roared at her his face completely contorted with rage and fire. The three eyes of Trinibee glowed in time with Rezo's ire giving credence to his convictions.

Nora had hoped to reach him and get him to let go of the poisoning power. Clearly Rezo was lost to her and all reason. "I didn't leave you, you pushed me away. I never wanted to leave. I loved you, I still do. This why I have to do this." Nora reached into her bag and pulled out a skull. It was old, stained and cracked in so many places. It almost looked like it had just been dug up out of someone's grave if not for one thing. This skull though originally appeared to be human had a third eye socket in the forehead area.

"What is that?" Rezo sneered backing away slightly.

"This is the god of Trinibee." Nora announced walking a circle around Rezo till she stood between him and the still bound Lina and Zelgadis. "Or at least that is what the tomb said it to be. I spent many years searching for this skull. I knew once the first eye had poisoned your mind that you would eventually find away to possess the other two as well. Even after you died I still knew it would come to this."

"What's your great-grandmother doing?" Zelgadis whispered to Lina.

"Damned if I know! Most of the information on the Trinibee people is broken up in three by tribes that took the eyes to guard them." Lina hissed back.

"Nora Lockeheart is supposed to be one of the best archeologists out there besides Rezo." Zelgadis mused. "If anyone could discover more about a lost civilization then it would be her."

"That skull is not a god." Rezo growled at Nora. He was insulted by her suggestion but still Rezo found himself backing away from the skull she held in her hands. He felt a strange pull that made him want to go closer to the skull and it scared him. Because the closer the skull was the more Rezo felt his power drain from him.

"Maybe not but he was the last man to possess all three eyes at once. The power and destruction that this man caused made the Trinibee people vow to never let the eyes be together in one place ever again." Nora held the skull forward as she took a step towards Rezo.

On instinct Rezo took a step backwards. "Get that thing away from me!"

"No." Nora shook her head. "The eyes always respond to those that it belongs too. And even though you are their current owner they belonged to this man before you." She threw the skull at Rezo.

Rezo tried to get away but it was too late. The skull's pull ripped the eyes from his face. He screamed in pain as he crumbled to the ground. He clutched the empty spaces that the oval gems once were morning the loss of sight and power. The socket that had developed on Rezo's forehead closed up and healed looking as if there hadn't been an eye there at all.

The skull which had been on a collision path with Rezo stopped mid air and just hung there as the eyes took their spots. The whole skull glowed with the power of the eyes as it just floated there.

Lina, Zelgadis and Nora looked on with horror at the sight they saw before them. It appeared that the power of the eyes were giving life back to the skull forming a body of pure light for the fallen 'god'.

"What did you do?" Lina asked her great-grandmother in a near whisper. She had meant to speak her question out louder but her voice betrayed her.

Rather than answer the question Nora quickly ran to Zelgadis and Lina and attempted to get them free of their bindings.

"Seriously great-grandmother what did you do?" Lina demanded this time truly using her voice.

"I was trying to save Rezo." Nora insisted with full blown panic settling into her blue eyes. "I had to stop the eyes from taking over his mind."

"But what did you do?" Lina almost screeched her question out this time.

"I think she just revived a god." Zelgadis stated rather deadpan.

Both Lina and Nora looked to where Zelgadis was and saw the three eyed skull staring at them.

Those still just a skull the 'god' now had a body of black light that crackled around the air. Though the skull lacked the mandible it still appeared to smiling a rather devilish smile at them.

If Lina, Zelgadis and Nora weren't in a panic before they were now. Nora couldn't get the professors out of their bonds fast enough as fear and terror loomed in the air.

Rezo moaned as he tried to stand. His sight was gone once more but he didn't feel like he did when he first lost his eyes. Back when he and Nora found the first eye something inside him changed. He felt a darkness seep into his soul seemed to stem from losing his sight. But now he just felt confused and scared. "What's happening?" He whispered tilting his head around to hear better. He heard a crackling sound that hissed in the air.

The 'god' turned his attention away from the trio to the newly re-blinded man. He grabbed Rezo by the throat sending currents of electricity through him.

Rezo convulsed in pain as he was lifted into the air before being thrown across the room towards the others. He landed in a limp heap as though he was nothing more than a discarded ragdoll.

"Rezo!" Nora screeched as she ran to where Rezo landed. She checked his vitals and was relieved that his heart was still beating and he was still breathing.

"Nora..." Rezo mumbled weakly while trying to grab onto her arm.

"Rezo I'm right here..." Nora grabbed his hand with her own and gave it a squeeze.

"Should you be that concerned about him...?" Lina wondered while rubbing her now free hands and wrists. "He did kinda almost try and kill you earlier."

"Wha?" Rezo mumbled in confusion. He was weak in both body and mind so as such his mind was very much muddled at that moment.

"Lina not the time!" Nora hissed at her. "Just hang in there Rezo you'll be fine." She tried to reassure him.

"I don't think we'll be fine." Zelgadis commented still looking at the skull/god/creature thing that was still 'smiling' at them.

The skull god let out an inhuman screech as he shot a bolt of electricity in Lina and company's direction. It failed to hit any of them but it had been too close for comfort.

"Okay we have to get out of here fast! Before that thing there decides to barbeque us!" Lina declared in a panic.

"We can't leave!" Zelgadis protested. "If we run away this thing is either going to hunt us down or go on a murderous rampage. And that's assuming we can even manage to get away without being killed either!"

"Well we can't exactly fight a god now can we? What can we do?" Lina whined in frustration as the skull god shot another blast of energy their way. This time it wasn't a warning shot and the group had to dodge the blast.

"Nora what do you know about this thing?" Zelgadis questioned the older redhead.

"Yeah what the hell was your exit strategy?" Lina added.

"I didn't think this was going to happen!" Nora admitted. "I figured the eyes would go back to the skull and just stay there. I had no idea it was going to revive that thing!"

"Gee isn't that reassuring news!" Lina muttered while avoiding another blast. For some strange reason the skull god seemed intent on hitting Lina first.

"Honestly I was hoping it wouldn't have gotten this far! I can't believe you actually brought the third eye with you when you were tailing a thief!" Nora chided.

"Really not the time to be playing the blame game!" Lina shouted while dodging right to avoid another blast. "Seriously why the hell is it picking on me for?"

"While Lina's got him distracted we've got to think. What do you know about this god?" Zelgadis asked Nora.

"The Trinibee people worshiped the eyes using their power to do great things. But they were never meant to belong to one person; they belonged to the whole tribe. It is said that the youngest son of the tribe's chief took the eyes for himself so he could be more important than his father. The eyes possessed him turning him into a god. He made his people worship him but eventually the eyes drove him to complete madness so the tribe had to stop him." Nora explained.

"How did they stop him?"

"They removed the eyes."

"Well how the hell did they do that?" Lina snapped piping in on the conversation.

"I don't know." Nora muttered. "You know how it is with ancient texts they are all fanatical tales of supernatural things written so poetically obscure that even if it were a perfect translation it wouldn't make clear sense."

"What did it say?"

"Three chosen ones faced the god and declared ownership of an eye each. The eyes chose their owners and the evil was banished." Nora explained.

"Took ownership? How the hell are we supposed to do that?" Lina snapped starting to feel very tired from running.

Zelgadis looked at the ground seeing the debris from the carnage from the machine. He and Lina had been protected from the explosion by the second and their eyes. A long piece of sharp glass caught Zelgadis' eye as it gleamed reflecting the light from the blast of energy being thrown about the room. Seeing the glass gave Zelgadis an idea. One he didn't like but at this point it was do or die anyway. "The red eye belongs to me!" He announced while holding up the glass in his hand. "Eye heed my call!"

"Zel what are you doing?" Lina hissed. The skull god's attention was now full on Zelgadis and that scared Lina. Especially since Zelgadis wasn't even trying to hide at all. He stood there making a large target for himself. "Hide damn you!"

Zelgadis ignored her. "Red eye I summon you!" He bellowed.

The red eye seemed to pulse a little quicker than its counterparts but still remained within the skull.

Zelgadis let out a sharp breath as he brought the glass to his skin and cut a deep long gash along his left arm. Blood started to gush from his limb trickling to the ground.

"ZEL?" Lina screeched. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Red eye I summon you! Heed my call! HEAL MY WOUNDS!" Zelgadis made another cut this time stabbing his leg.

The pulsating red eye finally succumbed to Zelgadis' calls and flew out from the skull god and towards him. The red light bathed Zelgadis and his wounds seemed to magically heal.

This action made the skull god very angry and it let out another inhuman wail as it started to charge at Zelgadis. A beam of black light in the shape of a blade formed from its' hand raised and ready to strike.

"BLUE EYE I AM YOUR MASTER! COME TO ME!" Lina screamed in fear and desperation praying and hoping for the best.

Perhaps it was the terror in Lina's voice or the fact that the second eye was already spoken for but the third eye listened. It flew to Lina faster than the skull god could get to Zelgadis. It was just as fast as a blink of an eye really and suddenly Lina found herself between the skull god and Zelgadis with her own blade of blue light defending off the black one.

_(Author's Notes: Down to the wire again... I almost didn't get this part finished in time. Granted this hasn't been the easiest story of mine to write but I've never had so much trouble finishing a chapter before! I think it's because we're getting to the end that I feel less motivated to write it. Really who wants to see a story end?)_


	33. Chapter Thirty Two

_Author's Notes: You know I really need to remember that people can't always tell when I'm joking or being sarcastic when it comes to writing. I'm very sorry if I worried anyone with the comments I added with the last part. The last three weeks I haven't been having an easy time writing. And yes coming to an end of a story probably didn't help things. I write because I love to write, and also because of the people that take time out of their busy lives just read what I've come up with. I'm always happy to get reviews/feedback on anything I write. So thank you all. ^^_

**Ruins Raiders**

Chapter Thirty-two, Series Finale: Eye for an Eye

By Relm

Professor Lina Inverse was known for many things around the world. She could translate several dead languages, climb rock faces, pick locks, hot wire a car in a hurry to make a hasty getaway... Yes Lina had a few skills under her belt to help her in almost any situation when it came to searching for relics. She had even learned how to fight with a sword. It was actually something she quite enjoyed and practiced regularly. And it did come in handy when she found herself being attacked abroad.

However Lina had never fought with a sword made of light. Nor had see fought a revived god before. To say she was a little nervous was a complete understatement.

Sparks flew across the room as Lina guarded against the god's sword of light with her own. Lina had to hold her sword with both hands just to hold her own. Even with the diminished strength of losing two of the three eyes the god was still very strong. But then again Lina was holding a sword while the god's sword was an extension of his own arm. "Damn he's strong!" Lina exclaimed through gritted teeth. She screamed out and putting every ounce of strength she had and shoved the god backwards.

Wasting no time Lina lunged at the god slashing at him with all the skill she had as a swordswoman.

The god's expression seemed to change in that moment. Before he had seemed outraged by the loss of his two eyes but now it seemed like the god was amused by Lina's antics. Being challenged by someone it perceived as being lesser to him was interesting. He met her challenge parrying all of her attacks.

Lina felt the emotional shift in the god as she fought him. Right now the god was feeling pretty powerful and cocky. This was exactly what she was hoping for. Because of her size people always underestimated Lina. For as long as the god thought he had the upper hand he wasn't going to take Lina's attacks seriously. So Lina didn't give him a chance to do anything but defend. She was relentless.

"He keeps blocking! You need to get an attack through!" Zelgadis yelled from the sidelines.

"Really? Because I thought we were dancing here!" Lina sneered out sarcastically. "I am trying to slice the bastard up you know!"

"You're not getting an opening." Zelgadis retorted back.

"Neither is he!" She reminded him. "As long as he's on the defensive he can't attack. All I need to do is keep at and eventually I'll get my chance."

"Not if you tire out first." Zelgadis mumbled. "What are we going to do?" He looked to Nora whom was still holding onto Rezo. "I have the second eye; Lina has the third so why is that thing still standing?"

"I don't know. The first eye is one that grants eternal youth. It's probably keeping the body together. We have to get the eye out of that skull." Nora concluded.

"How do we do that?"

"Not me, you." Nora clarified. "You have the second eye. It heals. It healed your wounds already. If it hurts you the eye should save you."

"So what you're suggesting I go and distract that thing into trying to kill me so Lina can get her opening?"

"Yes that's exactly what I'm saying."

"Great-grandmother!" Lina exclaimed. "You can't ask Zel do that! This thing could kill him and second eye might not have to power to bring him back to life!"

"We've got no choice." Zelgadis concluded while shoving the second eye into his shirt pocket and picking up a large piece of debris. "Go for the skull Lina! Slice that eye out!" And with that Zelgadis lunged at the god with his makeshift weapon in hand.

"NOOO!" Lina screamed in terror but it was too late.

The god turned his attention away from Lina and slashed at Zelgadis. Bright red blood splattered across the room with a sickening spray.

Many thoughts flashed through Lina's head at that moment. All of them filled with horror. Her mind was going crazy trying to process what she was witnessing but she knew she had to block it all out. Turning her attention back onto the currently distracted 'god' Lina brought her sword up high and slashed at it's head. Instead of going through the skull and breaking it into a million pieces a strange force repelled Lina sending her flying backwards into the wall. Her head hit the concrete with a loud crack and she crumpled to the floor in a heap. Blood oozed down the side of her head as everything went black for the North Rixx University Professor.

Nora looked at the horror she saw before her. Lina was on the floor like a tossed ragdoll not moving and Zelgadis lay in a pool of his own blood clutching his gaping wound. The god was still there baring his menacing smile but his gaze was transfixed on Nora now. She felt sick to her stomach with both fear and guilt. Was Lina dead? Was Zelgadis not going to make it? Had she unleashed a mindless killing beast on the world?

The god threw his head back and cackled. It was a distorted shriek like laugh that wasn't all unlike the sound of a banshee wail. It was clear that the god felt victorious. The god of Trinibee had won.

This was a hopeless moment for Nora. She had two choices left to her. Surrender and die, or fight and die. Either way she wasn't likely to leave this place alive. Not known for being a quitter Nora stood her ground and stared down the beast threatening her. It was then that she saw what Lina had done.

The god stood there looking so pleased and proud. It was clear that he didn't even realize what injury he had sustained. True the first eye must have protected the skull of the god to some degree but it hadn't protected itself. There was a crack going straight across the middle of the first eye. The light from the oval gem was brightest in those cracks threatening to spill out completely.

That bright amber light was a beacon of hope for Nora. They still had a chance. Even if she had to die to do it she was going to stop that beast.

Or that was what Nora had thought to herself as she looked around for a weapon to attack with. But she didn't even get the time to do that as someone else had been thinking the same thing she had.

Rezo whom had been on the floor in a weak state suddenly sprung into action and lunged at the beast like god. He had no weapon in hand which was ludicrous. Rezo was not known to be a fighter; Nora was the one that usually fought off when the two of them were in danger. There was no way Rezo could even in his best shape defeat a god. Hell the man couldn't even see what he was doing.

The god let out another inhuman cackle and raised his arm to strike Rezo. But as he did so the crack in the first eye increased causing the god to falter.

Though completely blind Rezo knew exactly where the first eye was. He couldn't see the eye but he felt its presence. Rezo reached out to grab the oval gem just as the god tried to strike Rezo down.

An explosion of bright amber light filled the room as Rezo and the god of Trinibee collided with each other. The light was so bright that Nora had to shield her eyes to avoid being completely blinded. But as quickly as it happened the light disappeared.

Nora looked on in both confusion and concern expecting to see the worst. But to her surprise all she saw was Rezo standing there with his back to her. There was a loud crash as the skull fell to the floor and broke into a million pieces. "Rezo...?" She dared speak feeling very much afraid at that moment.

Slowly Rezo turned around to face Nora. The empty sockets where his eyes had once been were filled once more. The two halves of the first eye of Trinibee filled those void sockets and they stared at Nora.

"Oh no... Not again!" Nora gasped in horror.

Rezo blinked in confusion at Nora not understanding what she meant. He could see the look of fear in her eyes and it just didn't make sense.

_The fact that you can see also doesn't make sense._ A voice in the back of his head reminded him.

'I can see again?' Rezo looked down at his hands marveling at the sight. As he did so he noticed that he had something in one of his hands. Opening his palm Rezo saw the first eye of Trinibee whole and intact glowing ever so softly.

Nora saw the eye in Rezo's hand too and it confused her more. She looked back up at Rezo's face and was startled to see him looking at her again. But what was more alarming was the fact whatever it was that was occupying his eye sockets was starting to change. What had looked like to two halves of an amber gem turned into a set of the most beautiful purple eyes Nora had ever seen. Eyes she hadn't seen in such a long time. "Your eyes... Rezo your eyes are back!"

Rezo's confused face brightened with the biggest of smiles. "I can see!" He scooped Nora up into a bone crushing embrace. It seemed like a perfect moment till of course Rezo looked around. "ZELGADIS!"

The East Rixx professor still laid on the ground in a pool of his own blood but he wasn't clutching his open wound anymore. Zelgadis didn't appear to be conscious and his body was very still. However the rise and fall of his chest and the fact that his once gaping wound was completely healed proved that Zelgadis was still very much alive.

"Owww..." Lina mumbled as she tried to get up. "Damn my head hurts... What happened...? Oh GOD! ZEL!"

"He's fine Lina." Nora reassured her. "We're all fine."

"What about the god? Where is it?" Lina tried to look around but it made her head hurt more.

"In a million pieces on the ground."

"How did that happen?" Lina mumbled feeling very much confused.

"I'll explain later. Let's get you two to a hospital."

...

When Zelgadis woke up later he was laying in a nice soft bed with crisp white linens. There was a pleasant antiseptic smell to the air that matched the clean white walls and spotless linoleum floor. "What happened?" He mumbled not having a clue where he was or where he got there.

"Your great-granddad saved the day. Of course he wouldn't have done it without our help." A very conceited voice answered Zelgadis from the bed next to his.

Zelgadis snapped his head to see a mass of messy red hair with a large bandage tangled up with it. "Lina? What happened to your head? Are you okay?"

"You pretty much got gutted like a fish and you're wondering about a silly little bump on my head? Seriously buddy you need to get your priorities straight." Lina scoffed in mock disgust.

Zelgadis felt for the nonexistent wound across his abdomen. All he found was smooth firm flesh. There wasn't even a scar to prove the wound had happened. "Well I guess the eye did it's job... But Lina there's blood on your clothes! Your head must have been bleeding!"

Lina waved Zelgadis' concern off as though it were not even worth mentioning. It was hard to do as she felt her checks grow hot from all the attention she was getting. "It's nothing. Really."

Zelgadis narrowed his eyes at her but decided not to pursue the subject. "So how did my great-grandfather save the day?"

"Well after you pretty much tried to commit suicide I slashed at that bugger's face. Didn't break his skull or anything but I did give that eye a good crack. I got tossed like a ragdoll and knocked right out. Rezo apparently jumped at the god to try and pry the eye out of the skull but the crack got bigger and the eye broke in half. The skull fell to the ground and broke while the first eye reformed in the palm of Rezo's hand. But not before giving back the formerly deranged professor back his sight." Lina recounted the tail in a most theatrical fashion.

"What about Eris and the Vrumagens?"

"I guess without their master the puppets just disappeared. Eris' body was taken away by the corners. She's still dead of course and there's going to be this massive investigation where I'm sure we're going to get wrapped up in a whirlwind of interrogations and several layers of sticky red tape hell." Lina grinned bitterly.

"Once we leave the hospital of course." Zelgadis added.

"Naturally. They wouldn't be that mean to us."

"How long we got?"

"Me they want to keep over night on the count of a probable concussion. You they just want to keep because they don't know how the hell you survived. They'll probably let you go tomorrow." Lina surmised.

"Okay how about we see if we can sneak off to the cafeteria and grab an early breakfast, lunch or whatever meal it's time for?" Zelgadis suggested with a devil may care smile.

"Why Professor Greywars are suggesting I go on a breakfast date with you?" Lina exclaimed in a mock flirtatious manner.

Zelgadis rolled his eyes in disgust but did still end up blushing. "If I'm going to take you out on a date it wouldn't be to a hospital cafeteria."

"So this means you aren't going to treat?" Lina batted her eyelashes flirtatiously.

Zelgadis cringed. His blush deepened. She just had a way of doing that to him. "When I take you out on a date I'll treat you then. But for now it's every man for himself."

Lina blushed at Zelgadis declaration. Saying such a thing to Lina would usually get a punch in the face from the petite redhead. But Zelgadis was an exception. He was smart, interesting, and extremely handsome and he practically died for her so how could she say no to him? Sure he was annoying but she did so love how easily she could ruffle his feathers. No she couldn't say no, she was going to date him at least once. Twice or three times if he was lucky.

Who knows when the two of them will get any free time coming up but one thing was for sure, when Zelgadis takes her out on that date she was going to enjoy it. Because he was going to pay and she would definitely get his money's worth. She was worth it after all. Professor Lina Inverse didn't date just anyone after all now did she?

_**The End... **_

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_**...Of Book One**_

_(Author's Notes: Remember what I said about joking? I've always had every intention of doing a sequel series. Hee hee. So if you were expecting some in your face Lina/Zel fluff in this finale and were disappointed this is why. Yes folks there will be more. I like to draw out my fluff anyway. What will be in store for Book Two? Who knows? I've got some plot bunnies I'm chasing but nothing definitive as of yet. I don't know when Book Two will start, it might take a while but there will be a second story.)_

_**THANKS FOR READING!**_


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